Fallen Demon
by Nervemaster
Summary: Natsu was happy, content. That slowly changed as the world started to turn. No matter where he turned, he would never be able to avoid the deep cracks on the walls around him, nor could he avoid the paintings of his friends that were slowly withering away. But worst of all, was the mirror and the looming figure standing behind him. (Character death, minor romance, OC)
1. Interference

"Natsu, Gray, I have a favor to ask of you two," Erza demanded loudly. "I heard a rumor when I was returning from my last job, frankly, this is somewhat beyond my jurisdiction but as Master isn't present, I've decided to settle this matter myself, but in order to do that, I need you two to lend me your strength," she continued in her usual stern voice.

Natsu and Gray looked at each other for a brief second, primarily out of confusion and objection. They had no interest in working together, but there were circumstances where they were forced, primarily when it was Erza asking them.

"What does this mean?" murmured someone in the crowd that had surrounded themselves around the little group. That was briefly followed up by; "Erza asked the two of them for help," and "this has never happened before," although it had at several points in time.

"We will be leaving tomorrow morning, come prepared," Erza said authoritatively, as Natsu and Gray were glaring at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

"Erza, Natsu and Gray...I never considered this...this might be Fairy Tail's strongest team," Mirajane said, entirely swallowed up in the moment, completely forgetting that just a single member of their guild could probably overpower all three of them, but that was just nitpicking, and it really didn't suit her personality.

Suddenly, a loud voice came from the other end of the guildhall. "Erza," it called out. The crowd of people surrounding the newly formed group, and the group itself turned around towards the source of the voice. It was a tall man, enveloped by a long, black cloak and a dark hood, with tints of red on it.

"Who is that?" Lucy asked Mirajane quietly.

"That's…well, it's a bit hard to explain…I doubt that anyone knows his real name apart from the master, and he might not know it as well," Mirajane explained. "We normally call him Vile…I'll tell you why some other time," she finished, smiling at Lucy.

Lucy smiled back briefly, afterwards turning her attention back towards this, Vile, person.

Vile walked towards them. The wood creaked beneath his feet as he strode towards them with long, clam steps. No one was talking. It was only the sound of his footsteps resonating within the walls of the guild. When he eventually reached them, he stopped just outside the crowd, and with him, the sound filling the void of an otherwise quite hall. An awkward, tense silence slowly laid itself upon them.

"What do you want?" Erza was the first to break the silence with an uncertainty that was unfamiliar to even herself. It was the first time she had heard him speak, disregarding the little accident earlier that year. Needless to say, she was confused...this man had been in the guild for so long, he'd joined even before her, he was now speaking to them, to her, but for what reason?

"I've heard of this rumor as well. I'd prefer not to explain in detail, but I have some personal interest in following along with your group," he said. The crowd had split so Erza and Vile could see each other directly, without anyone in the way.

"I see," was all that Erza could muster. She couldn't find any other words to say.

"You needn't worry, I promise I won't be in your way," he said, after which he quickly turned around and made his way towards the large wooden doors on the other side of the hall. Erza, along with the rest of the crowd looked at the black cloak wavering each time he took a step towards the door. He opened the large door, but before going outside, he turned his head and looked back at the crowd, that was at this point still fixated entirely on him in silence. Without saying a word, he turned his head back and went out the door.

'I won't be in your way,' Erza cited inside her mind. She shrugged. For all she knew, he could be weaker than Natsu and Gray, but then again, she had heard rumors about his supposed powers, but those were just rumors. She, alongside everyone but Makarov, probably didn't even know what kind of magic he used, Erza figured.

She shook her head, removing Vile from her thoughts, and looked back at Gray and Natsu. "Well it's settled then. Meet me at the train station," Natsu groaned loudly, "tomorrow morning," she finishing her sentence. Erza lifted the giant diamond-encrusted claw she had gotten from her previous job and began heading towards Fairy Hills. The crowd dispersed soon after Erza had left. Lucy and Mirajane lingered briefly.

Lucy looked at Mirajane again, only to find a rather perplexing facial expression. She was either livid or confused, or both at the same time, Lucy figured. "Is something wrong?" Lucy asked concerned

Mirajane shook her head immediately. "I'm just excited, that's all," she replied, smiling ever so brightly.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Why?" she asked.

"Well, Vile has been in the guild longer than I, and yet I've not seen him take a single mission, or try to talk to anyone for that matter. He always sits in the corner writing in his book, keeping to himself. This is the first time I've actually heard him actually say a whole sentence," she explained, with a single twitch of her mouth. "I'm just happy that he's finally reaching out, but then again I'm interested in why he chose to do it now," Mirajane finished, after which she turned back towards the counter. Lucy decided to go back to Natsu and Gray, who was once again quarreling like always.

"Gray, you're still not wearing clothes."

Morning had just dawned a few hours ago, the sun still hung low in the sky. Low enough to peek in under the large canopy above the train station, spreading it's early rays of light across the platform.

Natsu and Gray were having one of their usual, pointless feuds on said platform, whilst Lucy was sitting on a bench looking at them with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Why are you here again, Lucy?" Happy asked while munching on a fish beside her.

"Mirajane asked me to make sure they weren't fighting when Erza wasn't looking... and to maybe snoop up some information on this... Vile person..." she said, not mentioning the fact that she was hoping to find some good material for her book from Vile.

"You're not really doing a good job, you know," Happy said with his usual carefree voice.

"But..."

"I'm sorry, were you waiting?" Erza said as she approached the little group, interrupting Lucy. She was towing a large cart filled with an astounding amount of luggage firmly tied onto it. The sheer amount of luggage Erza was bringing with her made Lucy's jaw drop. Natsu and Gray had stopped their fighting as soon as they had noticed Erza, and they were happily prancing around the station, only to return to fighting whenever Erza's watchful gaze left them and directed itself towards Lucy, whom she had just noticed.

"I'm afraid I've yet to be acquainted with you. You were in Fairy Tail yesterday, right?" Erza asked, smiling as warmly as she could.

Lucy nodded quickly, returning the smile somewhat strained. "I'm the new recruit, Lucy," she said while hugging Plue tightly to her chest. "Mira asked me to tag along for the experience, and to watch Gray and Natsu," Lucy explained.

"I'm Erza. Glad to have you on board," she said.

"Erza! I've got a favor to ask of you," Natsu shouted out of nowhere, while Gray was glaring at him, hoping that he would be pummeled down to the ground for yelling at her and interrupting her conversation.

"What is it?" she said exasperatedly. At this point, she was sure she knew what he was going to say next.

Natsu raised his fist and almost growled; "When we get back, fight me!"

Lucy gasped slightly. From what she had observed, Erza wasn't one to be trifled with, though Natsu seemingly didn't care about that. It was admirable, at least to Lucy, but that was mostly because she was unaware of how many times they had fought and how many times he had lost.

Gray conflicted. On one side, he wanted Natsu to be beaten by Erza, but on the other side, it was almost too cruel to have them fight.

"It won't be like last time... I'm good enough to beat yo-," he started, but was abruptly interrupted.

"I highly doubt that Natsu," a tall man with a long black cloak said. Natsu turned around and saw Vile, with his head shrouded in another dark hood. He immediately recognized the smell, though he hadn't been paying attention to anything around himself.

"And what do you know?" he said, offended.

"Enough," Vile said apathetically, shrugging lightly.

"Stop it you two" Erza said harshly, her brows furrowed slightly. Natsu shivered slightly, but Vile seemed unaffected, something that Erza wasn't fond of by any stretch of the imagination.

"I will fight you when this is over Natsu, though I'd suggest you listen to Gray," she said as a small smile crept onto her face.

"All right! I'm getting fired up!" he shouted for no particular reason, causing everyone within sight of Natsu to look at him, confused and annoyed.

"The train is leaving," Vile said, before heading into the locomotive.

Lucy rose from the bench and went to the others, waiting for Vile to enter the train completely, before saying; "Is it just me, or is that guy really creepy?", though she quickly regretted that decision because Erza punched her on the shoulder.

"You shouldn't be talking behind the backs of your own teammates," Erza said before she made her way inside as well. Lucy rubbed her shoulder whilst following Erza, all the while Gray was dragging a screaming Natsu onto the train behind her.

"I guess my first real adventure has really begun," she said to Plue when she had stepped through the doors of the train.

Erza was roaming the train to find Vile. He had seemingly decided that he didn't want to sit with them, and as such, he wasn't anywhere to be found, at least without searching. She had just finished her debriefing of the others, and was looking to have a short talk with Vile when she noticed him sitting on an empty train compartment, excluding himself of course. Erza tentatively took hold of the door and opened it slowly.

"Erza," he said, his gaze still fixated on the horizon that slowly trailed by outside the window.

"Vile," she responded. "I've got some questions for you."

He turned his head and looked at her. His face was still submerged in a perpetual state of shadows and obscurity. "Sit, please," he said while gesturing towards the seat across from him.

She nodded quickly and sat down in front of him. "Why are you here?" she asked, staring intently into his hood in a somewhat feeble attempt at seeing his face. It was to no avail, and she shortly thereafter figured he was using magic to cover his face.

"I'm here for many reasons, the primary one being either to prevent the release of Lullaby, or to destroy it. Why I would want to destroy Lullaby…well, let's just say that it's because it was created by Zeref," he said in a soothing voice.

"Zeref?" Erza asked somewhat hesitantly. She had heard of him, but she had never encountered anything related to him after _that_ incident, though that wasn't why she was interested in. What was really on her mind was the relation between Vile and Zeref. She could easily imagine him having a grudge against Zeref for reasons that was to her, irrelevant. The problem was that it didn't really seem to make sense in context. If it really was a grudge, he would probably have done something about Lullaby earlier, or he would probably have gone alone. She shrugged it off. No matter how hard she thought about it, she would not get a definitive answer through speculation.

He nodded. "Let's just say that I've personal interest in dealing with his creations, and leave it at that, if that is alright with you?" he asked.

"It's fine," Erza said promptly, deciding not to pursue the connection any more. It was clear to her that he didn't want to discuss it any more than what was necessary.

Vile nodded at her, seeming quite self-satisfied. "While we are at it, is there anything you'd like to ask me?"

Erza thought for a second or two, only to find the same question as the one that had immediately popped into her mind. "Who are you, exactly?" she asked the living enigma, that was sitting in front of her.

Vile chuckled briefly at the question. "Who am I…that is certainly a good question, if I do say so myself," he said, skirting around the inquiry, though seeing the annoyed look on Erza's face that quickly followed, he spoke again, in a more serious tone. "It's still too early for me to tell you who exactly I am, but rest assured, you needn't wait long before that question answers itself."

"You've been in the guild for years, even longer than me, and you still say it's too early?"

"You're quite…persistent, I'll give you that," he said before leaning towards her. "Listen, if you've waited for so long, what does another couple of days mean?" he said with a smirk on his face, or at least Erza could swear there was one. Erza sighed dejectedly. It was even clearer now that there was no use trying to prod answers out of him.

"Now arriving at Onibas station, I repeat, now arriving at Onibas station," a male announcer said loudly and unclearly through the speakers, as if he had stuck the microphone into his mouth and spoken.

Vile looked out the window, Erza soon followed suit and saw the train platform slowly roll by, with a sign on which 'Onibas' was written with bold letters.

Erza stood up and walked to the door, but before exiting, she turned around briefly. "I expect us to continue this conversation when all of this is over, you do realize that?"

Vile chuckled for the second time during their little conversation. "Of course Erza, go on ahead, I'll be right there," he said, standing up as well.

With that, Erza left the compartment and headed outside to find Natsu and the rest. She stepped out of the train and hit by the steam coming from the engine of the train, and then soon after the stuffy air that quickly and efficiently swooped in to replace the light smoke.

"We're over here," Erza heard Lucy yell from somewhere further down the train. Amidst a larger mass of passengers exiting and boarding the train, she saw a single hand stick up, and beside it, an inconspicuous flying cat. It took a couple of moments before the stream of people had passed them, but when it finally seized they were able to gather again, that of course being without Natsu who was inexplicably missing from the rest of the little group.

"Where's Natsu?" Erza asked, almost reluctantly since the answer was so obvious, it was almost painful.

A loud whistle sounded.

"I... he's.. on the train?" Lucy said, turning towards to train only to find it accelerating ever so slowly.

Erza wasn't normally one to swear, but in this particular situation, the temptation was, to say the least, extremely alluring. She resisted however, and began her usual spiel whenever she had messed up, or at least in her own opinion. "How could I have let this happen? I knew Natsu isn't good with transportation, and yet I distracted myself with Vile," she proclaimed, completely serious. "Somebody, hit me please," she asked, although Gray, and by proxy Lucy, knew better than to do so.

More so the reason for their surprise when Vile walked, seemingly out of nowhere, up behind her and tapped, more so than hit her on the shoulder. "We don't have time for your self-deprecation, go find the manager or whatever they have here, and I'll go after Natsu," he said clearly and concisely.

"But he's on a train…how are you going to go after a train?" Lucy said nervously, inching ever closer to Erza for reasons she was unsure of.

"I'm not entirely incapable, you know," he said casually before stepping down from the platform, onto the train tracks. The steam, dust or whatever the train had left behind upon it's departure was still not entirely cleared

The three of them stood there and watched as he just stood in the dusty cloud, each fully enveloped in their own thoughts, completely oblivious to the many stares they were receiving from all the ordinary people. Gray was wondering whether he was a complete idiot or not, Lucy wondering if she should get away while she still could, again, for reasons that were unknown to her. Erza, the only one of the three not entirely skeptical of Vila's abilities was quite pleased with the turn of events. She wanted to know what magic he used, simple as that. This would provide a good excuse to see it, so she was pleased, as she continued watching Vile, stand there.

It didn't last long before he took action. Vile muttered a string of incomprehensible words, clouded by the noise in the station. Immediately after having done that, two dark-patterned circles appeared beneath his feet and then slowly began moving up to his ankles. The circles began to spin faster, as what appeared to be shadows began replacing the circles patterns. The circles slowly disappeared; leaving behind two small 'belts' created by what they though was shadows, because what else could it be, had formed around his ankles.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get going," he said, after which he left a trial of dust, even larger than the residue the train left behind, as well as three quite surprised mages. The sheer speed of which he disappeared was astounding. It easily bested Jet in terms of speed, which was quite the feat since he specialized in speed magic, only, and from what they could tell, Vile did not use speed magic. Needless to say, that little show would not be brought up in Jet's vicinity.

"I…didn't expect that," Lucy finally managed to stutter, as the first of them to speak.

"So he's a..." Erza stood there, watching the trail of dust he had left behind slowly dissipate. She did not have any specific ideas as to what kind of magic he used. It was both what appeared to be dark magic, fused with speed magic. It wasn't exactly common for two schools of magic to mix, and especially not such a strange combination. She'd have to find another reason to watch his magic at work, though that could wait for later. They had things to do, people to catch up to and incredibly destructive magic to destroy.

It took only a minute for Vile to catch up to the train. It was already starting to slow down, probably because Erza had managed to find the emergency brakes back at the station. He ran the last distance, reaching the last train section. He kept going, though slowed down when he reached each new train section, checking quickly if Natsu was in it. There were many people poking their heads out of the windows of the train, confused as to why the train had come to such a sudden halt. Needless to say, their questions weren't answered but the cloaked man certainly did draw a fair amount of attention as he ran past them.

It didn't take long until the train had finally stopped and until he finally found the familiar dragon slayer. In the same cart as him was a black-haired mage with plain clothes, except for what was hanging in his belt. Vile quickly lowered his head to avoid being seen and quietly moved closer towards the middle of the train section. It was at this point, where he heard a loud noise and thankfully had enough sense in his head to push himself away from the cart. Seconds after he'd gotten a large enough distance between him and the compartment, the windows suddenly burst and fire roared out from within the train, shattering the wood in the ceiling and the walls, essentially destroying the entire cart.

Vile ducked, avoiding the scraps of wood flying rapidly towards him. He turned around and looked back towards the cart. Natsu was standing at the center of the destruction, and the other mage stood in the midst of the wreckage, his clothes clearly seared. The object around his waist had fallen off during the explosion. As soon as Vile noticed the absence of said object, he moved in low and swiftly, remaining out of sight.

He reached the destroyed cart in a matter of seconds. He halted briefly, to check whether Natsu and the other mage was in a position to see him. When he saw that they were both too preoccupied with each other, he moved to the back of the cart, jumped through a window and landed silently. Conveniently, the object was right in front of him. It had dislodged itself from the shadow mage's belt and then been blown to the back of the cart, only to lie just in front of Vile. He quickly grabbed it and jumped out through the same window he used to get in.

"We apologize for the sudden stop. It turned out to be false alarm, so we will now continue the trip towards Kunugi Station and Oshibana," it sounded through the one functional speaker in the destroyed cart.

"Damn it!" Natsu shouted from within the train. Vile stepped away from the train that was now setting into motion. For a brief second, he wondered why the train was still moving even though one of the carts had been wrecked. The train picked up its speed and as the end of the train passed him, he heard a low, but increasing rumbling behind him. He turned around and managed to see the dust of a car that roared past him towards the train.

Vile sighed heavily, after which he began walking in the trail of dust that car had made. The car had caught up with the train. The track turned a corner, as did the car. Not soon after that, he heard two loud cries of pain.

It took a little while before he caught up the car. When he eventually arrived, Gray and Natsu were sitting next to each other on the ground, each rubbing their heads.

"That hurt, you idiot!" Gray shouted at Natsu angrily.

"Shut up! You left me behind!" Natsu retorted., after which he dragged himself off the ground alongside Gray.

"That is true. Thankfully you're safe now," Erza said with a self-satisfied smile.

"By the way, there was this crazy guy on the train," Natsu noted casually.

"What guy?" Erza asked, or more precisely, demanded to know as she crossed her arms and looked at the befuddled Dragonslayer.

"There was this weird guy on the train that attacked me…said something about hating official guilds and Eisenwald, or something," Natsu said while shrugging.

"You idiot!" Erza shouted at him, after which she attempted to slap him, though as her hand approached his face, it was halted by a hand grabbing her wrist before its end destination, which was Natsu's face. Gray, Lucy and Natsu jumped startled back; Lucy even let out a high-pitched yelp before realizing who it was.

"I think Natsu has hurt his head enough for today," Vile said calmly, letting go of Erza's wrist.

"Vile... B-but he let a man affiliated with Eisenwald escape on the train!" Erza protested, quite annoyed by his interjection.

"I'm well aware since I let him get away," he said nonchalantly.

"What? Why?" Erza shouted, raising her hand once again, attempting to slap Vile.

He simply took a step back; avoiding the rather agitated Erza would give up after only one try. "There wasn't any reason to question him, since I managed to get this," Vile said, reaching into his cloak and withdrawing a wooden flute with a three-eyed skull engraved on the top of it. The three eye sockets were filled by a dim purple light.

"I saw that! That guy had it around his belt!" Natsu exclaimed. "Wait, you were in the train?"

"Ah, well, I grabbed it while you weren't paying attention," Vile noted which caused Natsu to raise an eyebrow at him. He was normally fairly observant of his surroundings. Natsu shrugged it off and blamed the motion sickness.

"Oh, I know that!" Lucy shouted out of no-where. "It's...Lullaby...death magic," she said. Natsu and Gray looked at her in surprise, though Erza looked at Vile instead.

"How did you know that the person Natsu saw had it?" Erza asked, glaring at him.

"I didn't, it was pretty much sheer coincidence, but that's not important. The important thing is that Lullaby cannot be destroyed in its dormant state, which means that I'm going to force a member from the dark guild to release it," he said casually as he looked at the flute. The four people around him looked at him as if he was crazy or demented. Maybe both.

"But...can't we just release it now?" Lucy asked.

Vile looked at Lucy and shook his head. "No. Lullaby is quite specially…it has the ability to detect the intentions of its user. Only people whose intentions have been corrupted are able to unleash Lullaby's true form, so unless one of you are harboring a sociopathic mass-murderer, we have to use someone else," Vile said. The four of them shared a moment of silence as they looked at each other, after which they collectively shook their heads. "Very well then, off towards the rest of the dark guild we go," he said, after which he turned around and began walking towards the car that was parked a little down the dirt road.

"Are you sure we can trust this person?" Gray asked the three who was standing next to him. Erza glared with withheld anger at Vile's back as he walked away.

"I don't like this at all, but it seems that we don't have a say in the matter. I say we follow him and make sure he doesn't mess this up," Erza said whilst struggling to remain calm. She silently wished Vile had never interfered with the whole matter in the first place...he was just so...arrogant. Erza clenched her fist while still glaring at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked angrily Vile as he sat down in the driver's seat of the car.

"I'm driving the rest of the way. You've already used up a fair bit of your magic power as far as I can tell. There is no point in you being exhausted for no reason at all, especially if you consider where we are going," he explained while readjusting himself in the seat.

"I hope you know where we are going," she said in defeat.

"I do most certainly, anyway, could you tell them to hurry up? I don't like wasting time," he said, equipping the bracelet that fueled the car.

Erza nodded and turned to yell at them.

He saw the little group go into the cabin a little while later. Erza, however, decided to sit next to him.

"So, what are you planning to do when we reach the dark guild?" Erza asked.

"I'll probably subjugate their leader and force him to release Lullaby somewhere where I can fight it without causing too much destruction," he said bluntly.

"Where exactly does the rest of us fit into your plan?" she inquired, somewhat annoyed.

"I never really considered that you know…I just figured you'd do whatever you normally do."

A vein appeared on Erza's forehead. "Do you seriously expect us to not fight with you? We're a team, aren't we? We fight together and that's that," she objected demandingly.

He his head and looked at her. The dark void that covered his face greeted her once more. "You need to remember that I never agreed to be part of a team. I only said that I had personal interest in the matter, and that I wouldn't be in your way, and I do believe taking care of Lullaby would not in any way obstruct your goal. Just like I won't interfere with whatever you're doing, I expect you to not impede my own plans, which is to obliterate Lullaby and nothing else," he said harshly. Leaving Erza no room to object, he started the car.

Erza looked at him with an annoyed expression that she had been wearing quite a lot ever since Vile began speaking. The car slowly started to move along the dusty road. "I don't think I've ever meet anyone as dumb as you. First, you let a member of a dark guild walk awa, and then you come up with some crazy unneeded plan to destroy Lullaby when it's in our possession and now you're declining our help? Who exactly do you think you are?" she asked as the vein began to grow in size. She crossed her arms whilst glaring furiously at him.

"I'm no one important. The only reason I'm working with you is because you forced me to do so," Erza was just about to protest at this statement, though he quickly continued. "You were planning to finish this the four of you. I'm well aware of your strength as well as Natsu's and Gray's, hell even Lucy's, and I do believe that you would be able to destroy Lullaby by yourselves, but-…" he said, turning his eyes from the road and looking down at Erza for a brief second. "I can't tell what kind of destruction you would have caused while fighting him. That's why I'm here. If you destroy a city while fighting Lullaby, aren't you just doing what Lullaby was made to do? Lullaby was created with the purpose of killing people and destroying everything they held dear. It goes for the rest of Zeref's creations as well. If you destroy a city, you only used a lesser evil to defeat a greater, and I do not believe that is acceptable, which is why I forced myself to interact with you so that I could do this my way. Zeref's creations have already created enough destruction as is, and there is no need to increase the damage that these creatures have caused. You can ask Gray. I'm sure he would feel the same as I," Vile said. "And for the record, the one on the train was too weak to summon Lullaby," he noted with a shrug.

Erza sat there quietly, letting the words sink into her head. "Do you think you are you strong enough?"

"It seems like you're taking me too lightly. Don't worry, it's going to be fine" he said.

Erza could've sworn that she could see a smile under the hood as she looked at him. Vile really was quite strange...granted, Fairy Tail does encourage strange personalities she figured.

"Erza...after this is done there is something I'd like to discuss with you."

She looked at him confused.

"You see, I've been planning to talk to you for quite a while, though I've never really got around to it."

"Oh...about what?" she asked.

"It's about the R-system," he said calmly, waiting for her reaction.

"I see...but why now?" she asked, confused... how did he know the R-system?

"It's because you were always busy, either messing around with Natsu and Gray or out on a mission, and I was…otherwise occupied so to speak. I gave up some time ago, but conveniently enough it seems that I've finally gotten an opportunity to talk with you without interference. I'm honestly glad that I didn't have to wait much longer," he said with a short sigh.

Erza sat in thought for a moment, after which she said, "On one condition." Vile turned his head once more and looked at her briefly, before turning his attention back towards the road. "You drop that hood of yours and you start using your real name. You're like Mystogan, to a certain extent, but then somehow you're more mysterious...you're within arm's reach, and yet no one knows anything about you. It's saddening to see someone alone in the guild..." she looked away, trying to hide a frown on her face.

"There were two conditions," he muttered.

Erza hit his shoulder in response, causing him to momentarily lose control of the car, sending it drifting around the road. A large groan came from the inside of the car. He quickly regained control of the vehicle.

"Fine, but only after we're done with this mission. Is the terms of this agreement acceptable?" he asked.

They were nearing Oshibana. It was visible on the not so distant horizon.

"Yes."

Not long after entering the city, they found out that the station has been taken over by Eisenvald, or at least the trails of smoke emitting from the large building suggested it quite heavily.

The normally congested streets were empty, which allowed them to speed through the town unhindered. It wasn't long before they reached the large plaza in front of the station. There was a large mob kept at bay by the city guard outside the large entrance of the building. Vile stopped the car not far from it, and was about to knock on the window to the cabin, but the door sprung open and a barely conscious stormed out of the car. He was followed by the others, though at more moderate speeds.

They grouped up around the fallen Natsu. "The plan is rather simple. I go in and…extract their leader and take care of Lullaby and you take care of the other members. When you're finished, just look for the large monster in the horizon and go there," Vile said.

"Wait…you're going to take him on by yourself...? Isn't that like…dangerous?" Lucy looking worriedly at him. She might not like him that much, but that didn't change the fact that she was still concerned for her senior.

"It's nothing to worry about. If I needed your help I would've asked for it," he said nonchalantly, after which he headed towards the station. "If you have any intentions of helping me you should probably hurry. Either way, good luck. I'll see you after all of this is done," he said, just before being absorbed by the crowd.

Natsu, who had eventually gotten up from the ground and recovered from his motion sickness, was staring at Vile's back as he disappeared amidst the mob. "Erza, are you sure we should just leave him to it?" Natsu asked. "I mean…I wouldn't be able to have a good fight at all if I don't get to fight Lullaby."

"It's as he says Natsu, if we deal with the dark guild before he's done beating Erigor, the man who was dubbed Shinigami for good reason, into submission and destroying Lullaby we get to help him, and I highly doubt he's that fast," Erza said with a self-confident smirk, something quite unlike her.

"All right, I'm getting fired up," Natsu shouted as he ran into the crowd pushing people away, Happy flying right behind him.

"That idiot," Gray muttered quietly as he started walking

"Lucy, you stick with me. These are dangerous people after all," Erza commanded. Lucy nodded and ran up to Erza and then walked calmly behind her, though she couldn't quite get rid of her nervousness.

"And what authority do you have over me?" he shouted mockingly at the hooded man that had just entered the train platform.

"I have power, and you don't," Vile said in a cold, apathetic voice. He waited until he saw how Erigor's face became warped in rage, and then he jumped at Erigor who was standing on top of a light pole inside of the hall. Before Erigor could even react, the stranger had already grabbed his throat with his hand, set off the light-pole and was flying towards the large window that led to the plaza. He tried to yell, but all he ended up doing was gasping for air. His attempts to break lose were also in vain, since every time he tried, the hand would simply clamp down mercilessly. He heard the sound of shattered glass, and then he passed out.

Down on the ground, just in front of the building, Erza heard the sound of the window breaking. She looked up and saw Vile, dragging a man whom she presumed was Erigor, by his neck, through the air at an incredible speed moving towards the outskirts of the city.

She stopped. She couldn't see any magic...He wasn't using magic to force Erigor to do as he wanted. Erza was quite vary of his reputation, and the fact that Vile had complete control over him, without even trying it seemed, was quite unsettling, at least to her.

"Is…is that Vile?" Lucy asked, sounding almost overwhelmed. When she had first seen Natsu she had been impressed by his strength…but this was over the top.

Erza nodded.

"Who's he dragging?"

"That's Erigor..." Erza said, hesitating slightly. She had thought that Erigor would at least have put up a fight before going submitting to Vile, but that assumption had seemingly been quite unfair to Vile.

A large explosion quickly stopped her train of thought. She could see even more smoke coming from within the building. "I guess Natsu really doesn't want to miss out on fighting Lullaby…it would be a shame to let him down like that," Erza said as she stormed through the rest of the crowd, knocking down whoever was stupid enough to stand in her way. Vile wasn't the only scary person in Fairy Tail Lucy thought to herself.

Inside of the train station, the dark guild was going into a pure state of entropy. Everyone were trying their hardest to do absolutely nothing to regain control. Several people had already chosen to run, some decided to stay and others did both, lingering at the nearest exit with a foot on each side of the door. As soon as they heard the high-spirited yells from one person, accompanied by a faint smell of fire, those who were lingering ran, and those who chose to stay, were now deciding that running would also be a good idea, sadly for them though, they weren't as prepared as the others had been.

Natsu crashed into the dark guild and single handedly ripped a hole right through their unorganized ranks. Many, upon realizing that Natsu was the only one there, reconsidered their previous decision to run as Natsu was only one person. They turned around and managed to surround him quickly, though were at a loss at what do next until someone decided to charge forward. The others followed him, but most came to regret that decision as soon as Natsu began smirking and fire began to imbue his limbs. Needless to say, but should still be mentioned, the people who were smart enough to realize how bad their newfound position was had already left, just after the cowards had dashed, thus leaving the ignorant and the people who had convinced themselves of otherwise.

Their venture only worsened as they heard a clear voice shouting from the entrance. **"Ice Make: Lance,"** they heard, after which several of their members fell, knocked out by pillars of ice that disappeared as quickly as it came. Pandemonium ensued, everyone scattered to the winds and didn't look back, even when they were quite mercilessly taken care of by a large number of flying swords that somehow managed to not kill anyone, which for those who stayed conscious long enough to realize this was confusing. They didn't have long to ponder about this, as they were subsequently also taken out by the very same swords.

"Whoa! She's amazing," Lucy gawked as she watched Erza crush the dark guild with renew vigor. Erza was quite adamant about finishing things quickly, most of all because she wanted to help Vile, though secretly she wanted to get in his way for being so arrogant.

"I think you now understand why she is so feared now," Gray noted from the sidelines to Lucy. Lucy watched with great interest as Erza slowly descended to the ground. Being able to float, albeit shortly was quite astounding, at least if you asked Lucy. In addition, the fact that she was able to change her clothes, as well as weapons so quickly, of course, but she could float. It amazed Lucy much more than it should have, especially upon seeing Vile all but fly just moments earlier, but at that point, she had already classified him as a monster and explained everything he did using that fact.

"Now that they are dealt with, it's time to catch up with that arro-, Vile," Erza said, exquipping back into her normal clothes. She didn't look pleased by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how hard she tried to constrain her irritation. "Let's get going," she ordered them as she started to head for the exit.

"What about Natsu?" Lucy asked, pointing towards the pink haired Dragonslayer that had been caught in the attack.

Erza stopped and looked back at Natsu, after which she shrugged with slight indifference. She knew he was fine. He wasn't that weak. "It's his own fault, he knew I was in a hurry," she noted.

"A-all right," Lucy said, a pearl of sweat ran down her forehead. "I'll can take care of him, if you want?" Lucy suggested. She was just hoping not to be in close proximity to this agitated Erza whom was frightening her almost as much as Vile did. Almost.

"Sure, are you coming Gray?" she asked Gray who quickly nodded and followed her obediently. The two of them left the hall, leaving only Lucy, Happy and Natsu, along with a lot of knocked out dark guild members. She hesitantly stepped over some of them and reached Natsu. She crouched down and poked his forehead somewhat reluctantly. He might have been seriously injured she figured.

She quite regretted her concern as soon as his eyes sprung open instantaneously and he got on his feet before Lucy finished her surprised shriek.

"What happened?!" he shouted as soon as he got on his feet.

"Erza took care of them," Happy happily responded.

"Where's Erza and Gray now?"

"They were heading towards Vil-," before Lucy had managed to finish her sentence, Natsu was practically out the door already.

"Do you want a lift?" Happy asked Lucy who was now standing all by herself, excluding Happy, in a large hall filled with many unconscious men. She sincerely wished that would be the last time she ever found herself in such a situation.

"Do you think they took the car?" Lucy asked.

They hadn't taken the car. Erza and Gray were running through the streets in the direction they had seen Vile taken off towards, luckily it wasn't that far. Around halfway there, the sunlight that had beamed down upon them suddenly vanished, replaced suddenly by looming black clouds and a faint, purple glare emitting from outside the city. They could see the outline of a large creature in the distance, just above the rooftops of some of the smaller buildings that formed the outskirts of the city. They saw how the sky rippled like waves just above the monster, and then spread outwards. When it eventually reached them, they were almost overpowered by an ear-shattering shriek that chilled them to their bones.

Gray remembered it. It wasn't the first time he had heard the like. It made him sick to his stomach recalling Deliora at a time like this…

"Are you alright?" Erza asked after having taken but a single glance at his face. It was contorted in pain.

"Yeah…I'm fine, you go on ahead, I need a moment," he said, brushing her concerned look off. Erza nodded and increased the pace, quickly disappearing from Gray's sight who had stopped to take a breath.

As Erza slowly came closer to the monster, she began hearing a ringing noise that became more pronounced the closer she came towards it. It hurt, but she managed to deal with it, she had to. She wasn't going to let Vile win without a fight, Lullaby neither but it wasn't as important as teaching Vile a lesson. She was well aware of the rarity of such a situation, which was why she dreaded wasting but a second if it meant letting the chance slip away.

It wasn't long before she finally turned a corner and found Vile standing in the middle of the road, in front of the gigantic Lullaby, who at this point hadn't moved an inch as far as Erza had noticed, which puzzled her immensely. She saw him turn his head and noticed a couple of dark-red lines illuminating on a ghastly white surface inside of his hood. It looked strange to say the least. He turned towards Lullaby again.

"**YOU VILE, REPUGNANT, WRETCHED, FILTHY TRAITOR! RELEASE ME AT ONCE!**" it roared with its demonic voice, thundering above them. Vile seemed to be unaffected.

"It's about time you arrived, I was getting tired of waiting," Vile said with a chilling voice. It wasn't the cold indifference she had gotten used to during that day.

Erza was just about to make a remark, but Vile decided he didn't have time for that.

"**Nullzone: Enclose,**" he shouted, moving his hand so that his palms faced towards Lullaby. Two large magic circles appeared, one beneath Lullaby, and one above. They were both black.

"**NO, NOT THIS, RELEASE ME YOU FILTH, YOU DE-,**" it yelled in futile desperation. It was stopped by a swift hand motion by Vile.

Not soon after their appearance, darkness began to pour out of the magic circles, filling the space between the two circles like tar, slowly filling up a contained, strangulating everything inside with its thick, suffocating liquid. It took mere seconds for the entire monster to be submerged in the black liquid that made up the box. Erza could feel the incredible magic pressure around Vile. The air itself was resonating with him, as he shouted once more.

"**Nullzone: Erase!**" The gigantic black box disappeared in an instant. There was a moment of awe, followed by a moment of terror, as Erza felt the incredibly air force that was pulling her towards where the box had been. Everything that had been engulfed by the box, Lullaby, trees, some ground, even the air had vanished, and all that was left was a vacuum that sought to be filled instantly.

Erza found it difficult to believe what she had just witnessed. All her expectations had been blown out of the water, and then some. She had no idea what kind of magic he used, or how strong it was, but the fact that he had taken care of Lullaby without breaking a sweat, added to the fact that he somehow kept it from moving for minutes without showing any effort was staggering, even to her.

"V...Vile…who...who exactly are you?" Erza asked. She couldn't wrap her head around how someone could be so powerful, and not be S-class. She couldn't remember him participating in the S-class trials…not even once…but he was still this powerful, it felt almost like a given that he would be, but he wasn't.

"Vile is much more powerful than you think," she heard a voice say from behind her. A very familiar voice.

She turned around and saw none other than her guild master, Makarov, standing behind her with a smug grin on his face. "Master? What are you doing here?" Erza asked in confusion.

"I heard through an anonymous source, Mira, that you had joined up with Natsu, Gray and that new girl, Lucy, though what I found interesting was the fact that Vile had joined you…I don't exactly know much about the guy, but from what I know, it's not the safest nor harmless cocktail one could make. Also, let's not forget the fact that Lullaby is dangerous and I figured that you could use some help…and we weren't doing anything important at that meeting anyway, everything was taken care of within the first day," Makarov shrugged, walking up to her.

"Master…do you know who he is?" Erza said, motioning towards Vile who was watching the two of them. The dark-red tint had disappeared from his face.

"I don't know exactly who he is, but I've got a general idea," he said with a shrug and a grin on his face.

"What do you mean by he's more powerful than I think?"

"I meant exactly what I said. He's quite powerful, terrifyingly so from what he's shown me…what you saw just now, however daunting it might have been is not much compared to some of the other, more flashier things he's got in his arsenal," Makarov said with an even larger smirk. "Natsu would be impressed by what he can do."

Erza shook her head in disbelief. "If he's so powerful, why isn't he S-class?"

"He is, actually, well, not formally. I don't do it often, but I made an exception in his case. Let's just say that it would be somewhat unfair to pit him against other aspirants."

Once again, Erza found herself baffled. What she had seen had been one thing, but the testimony from her master was another. It wasn't often that she heard him give such praise to anyone, mostly because she never found herself in a situation where she would hear it.

"Greetings Master. It's been a while since we last spoke, hasn't it?" Vile said as he walked up to the two. Erza was trying to keep a straight face as best she could, and managed, mostly.

"Yes it has Vile, I see you've become a bit talkative?"

Vile nodded. "A chain of events has started, and there is no stopping it. That is why I'm going to be more...open, as you would say, yes. I believe that if I join forces with the rest of the guild for once, most of the members will manage to overcome the challenges ahead mostly unscathed. For the sake of the guild I will try to become something else. Something more...compatible," Vile said as he looked over Makarov and saw a car slowly rolling down the dirt road, driven by Lucy.

"That does sound pretty ominous," Makarov noted offhand, to which Vile nodded.

"It is, for the most part…I'll indulge you later," he said. Makarov's face lit up with glee. One of the reasons why he had let Vile join was because he was interested in him. It was the reason why he let most members join Fairy Tail, it was the reason a guild like Fairy Tail was created in the first place.

"Vile?" Erza said, cautiously. She had successfully managed to gain control over her facial expressions.

"Yes?"

"What did you do with Erigor?" she asked.

"Ah, him. It's a bit hard to explain, but I've got him confined for the time being," he said while shrugging.

"What are you planning to do with him?"

"Nothing really. Do you have anything in mind?"

"No," she said flatly.

"I'll probably release him at some point in the future, I don't really know," he said, shrugging once more. "Anyway, I'll take my leave now. I'll see you in the guild, although I doubt you'll recognize me."

"What do you mean?" Erza asked, confused.

"I made a promise to you, didn't I?" he said, after which he turned his back towards her and started to walk away from the two.

"What's he talking about?" Makarov inquired of Erza.

"You'll see when we get back I guess," she said, as a self-satisfied smile crossed her face.

The sun was starting to reappear from behind the clouds that had so abruptly seized the skies. It was a gradual shift, but pleasant nonetheless. Erza took a moment to look up at the reemerging sun, reveling in its warm caress that brought back the heat that had been forcibly torn out of her when the vacuum had been filled. All in all, the area where Lullaby has stood was a complete mess. Trees were uprooted, scattered branches lying everywhere, leaves being spread to the winds, the ground itself looking quite weird with its unnaturally flat surface.

Natsu, who was the first to get off the car, was in awe of the landscape in front of him. "Who did this?" he asked, quite excitedly.

"That was Vile's doing," Makarov said calmly.

"Ah, Master! You're here too?" Gray said, exiting the cabin of the car, smiling for once.

"Yes. I came to check up on you. I need to go back to the general meeting soon though. Tell the others I'll be back in two or three days, okay?"

"I'll tell them," Erza said. Makarov nodded and began walking back towards Oshibana.

"So, Vile did this?" Natsu asked while gesturing towards the messed up field.

"Yes…and he didn't even break a sweat while doing so," Erza noted.

Natsu smiled widely. He couldn't wait to fight Vile. It had been a while since he last fought someone seriously, someone who could actually fight back, and someone who wasn't Erza…

* * *

><p>Author Notes: And that was it for the first chapter. If you were unaware, it has been redone twice, making this the third edition of this chapter, and undoubtedly the best.<p>

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and I would, as always, appreciated any feedback or comments you may have in form of a review.

Just as a last note, the chapter after this one, Escalation, has yet to be 'fixed' and is at this point not up to par in terms of quality.


	2. Escalation

I do not own Fairy Tail nor any of the characters in it

**In Fairy Tail**

Three days after the Lullaby incident Erza was sitting at the bar in Fairy Tail. She looked at her former rival.

"Have you seen Vile around lately?" she asked, hoping that Mira would've seen him. She was quite excited to be honest. Finally unmasking the mystery that is Vile. It's like Mystogan going into the guild without putting everyone to sleep and showing his face. Something like that. Erza nodded to herself as Mira stared at her.

"I haven't seen him around lately. The last time I saw him was when you decided to join up a little over four days ago," Mira said, she too was curious. Erza shrugged and turned around and looked out over the tables. Something caught her eye as she glanced towards the spot where Vile usually sat.

"Wait a second," she muttered to herself as she stood up and made her way down to the back aisle. When she reached the back-row Natsu, Lucy and Gray came through the wooden doors. They had decided to take a job while Erza stayed behind, waiting for Vile to reveal his face for the first time. It was something she definitely didn't want to miss.

"Hey, Natsu!" Erza shouted at him as he waved at her.

"Yo! What's up Erza?" he asked, lowering his hand wondering if he had done something wrong.

"Can you smell Vile?" she asked. Natsu nodded and looked over to his usual spot, though he couldn't see anyone there.

He narrowed his eyes and looked more closely and then said, "The smell comes from over there." Natsu pointed towards Vile's normal spot.

Erza looked at him and then back to the spot."I thought there was something strange going on," she said.

She walked over and stood right behind the spot on the bench. The space in front of her seemed somewhat twisted, as if the light was going towards a prism. "Vile, are you there?" she asked. The others looked at her confused. Why was she talking to the air?

'No response, so that's how you want to play, huh?' Erza thought. She raised her hand and decided that slapping whatever was in front of her was the best course of actions. She slammed her hand towards the spot, but suddenly the hand stopped by itself, though Erza knew what had happened. She could feel something grab her wrist.

"You really are a nuisance aren't you?" an irritated voice said out of nowhere. It startled Natsu and the others though Erza remained adamant.

"Why are you still hiding? I thought we had a deal?" she said angrily.

"I agreed that I'd remove the hood and start using my real name. That was the deal. You didn't say anything about warping light," he said. She could hear the thrill in his voice. A frown appeared on Erza's face. "Don't look like that. It's true that I have no real obligation to show myself, but in spite of that I still plan to show myself sooner or later."

"Vile, is that you?" Natsu asked, moving closer to Erza and Vile.

"Yes?" he asked.

"All right! I want to fight you!" he said with a big grin on his face.

"I thought you were fighting Erza?" he asked.

"Well, I am, but that can wait. I've fought her before and I haven't tried you, and after what I heard you did to Lullaby I wanna see it for myself," he said, his grin getting bigger.

"I will accept your request then, though I won't use that technique on you. It's far to dangerous, no matter how strong you are. Actually, I have an idea," he said as Lucy tilted her head while Gray was somewhere in the background looking for his clothes. "If you beat me I'll stop using this spell while in the guild and finally show my face. If I win however, you let Happy run an errand for me," he proposed.

"Yosh! It's settled then!" Natsu shouted. Vile released his grip on Erza's hand and muttered, "Manifest," as a small magic circle appeared on the ground. Shadows began to spike out from it, gathering around a figure it seemed. The shadows began wrapping around the figure, forming a cloak and a hood.

"Let's go outside. Would you want the master to observe the fight?" Natsu nodded.

"I'll get him" Erza suggested. The master had returned earlier that day.

**Outside of Fairy Tail**

It was afternoon, soon to be night. The sun hung low on the sky as the fight was about to start. The whole guild has assembled outside of Fairy Tail to watch Natsu fight Vile.

"Are you prepared Natsu?" Makarov asked.

"Yosh! I'm all fired up!" he said as he smacked his fists together. "Vile?" Vile nodded and looked down at his fist.

"All right, let the fight begin" he declared.

"Here I come!" Natsu shouted as Vile quickly looked up.

"This will be fun..." he murmured as Natsu jumped towards him with his fist engulfed in flames.

Natsu was right in front of Vile as Vile reached out his hand and grabbed the burning fist that was hurling towards him. Natsu's eyes widened as Vile pulled his hand towards him. Vile swung his other hand up and hit Natsu on the top of his head with incredible force just as he let Natsu's fist go. Natsu slammed into the ground, making a hole in the tiles and the ground itself. The impact sent a shock wave through the spectators. The crowd was silent, until Lucy broke it. "Woah... is Natsu all right?" Erza stared at Vile, clenching her fist.

"He better be."

Vile took a step back and watched as Natsu started to pull himself up from the ground. He finally managed to pull himself all the way up, rubbing the back of his head.

"I think you hit harder than Erza," he said with a smile on his face.

"Can you still continue fighting, Natsu?" Makarov asked, looking concerned at him.

"Sure," he said while giving him a thumbs up.

"Natsu. Do not hold back. Give it your everything," Vile said as he watched him.

"What do you take me for? You don't hold back either!" Natsu said, de terminated. "Do you mean that?" Vile said in a dark voice that sent chills down Natsu's spine. Natsu swallowed.

"Yes!" he shouted as he jumped forward again, though this time he roared "**Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon**!" as a magic circle appeared at his hand. Vile watched his as he approached rapidly. As Natsu was about to hit him he simply said, "**Shackle**."

Natsu's entire body froze, though the fire still burning. His fist was just in front of Vile's head. Vile stepped aside. He chuckled a bit to himself as he saw Natsu's eyes follow him as he stepped behind him. "Release." Natsu's stumbled forward punching the air in front of him.

"That's cheap!" Natsu shouted as he turned his head glaring at Vile.

"**Shackle**," Vile said again, and once again Natsu's body froze again. "I will show you something I've never shown anyone before," Vile said as he changed his stance. He was now standing with his back straight, both of his hands on his head.

"**Spirit Manifest**," he muttered as he stopped moving completely. It didn't even seem as if he was breathing. Suddenly Natsu's eyes widened in surprise and pain. There was something weird going on in his chest. His breathing became more rugged as the pain intensified.

"**Spirit Return**," Vile said as he lowered his hands to his sides. "**Release**," he then said. Natsu dropped down on the ground, holding his hands over his stomach where the pain was coming from. He shut his eyes with a pained expression on his face.

Erza stared at Natsu and then to Vile. "What did you do to him?" she shouted and was about to charge in before Makarov stopped her. Erza blinked and looked down at him, before regaining her composure.

"Natsu. Stand up," Vile ordered him. Natsu opened his eyes and stood up, looking down at his fist. He clenched it and looked back at Vile.

"I don't know what you did to me, but thank you," he said with a large smile on his face.

"I wanted a more... interesting fight, so I released your maximum current potential. It will last around thirty minutes, long enough for us to conclude our duel," Vile said. "Yosh!" Natsu shouted as he charged forward, trying to punch Vile.

He moved at incredible speed, half of the guild lost track of him, only a few members saw his movement. Vile quickly brought his hand up and blocked his fist with his palm, though Natsu kept on pushing, making Vile's arm shake a little. "Let's see what you are truly capable of, **Shackle**."

Natsu's body froze once again, though this time, he struggled to get free of it. His magical power began to increase as he kept trying to force his way out of the binding. Vile moved away slightly, as Natsu finally broke the bond, ripping the magical tethers that was holding him in place apart.

"Perrrrfect," Vile said in a dark tone. "Are you ready for the real battle to start?" he asked. You could almost hear the joy in his voice. Natsu nodded.

"It's time I show you the next level," Vile said, as he put his hands up to his head again. "**Immortal Nightmare: Release**." The ground began to crack around Vile as his magical power increased substantially. You could even see the darkness flow around him as he began moving towards Natsu. It was a truly terrifying view.

The whole guild stood by and silently watched as Vile approached Natsu slowly. With each step the ground beneath his feet cracked and shattered. He stopped right in front of Natsu. He moved his hand up to his hood suddenly, and grabbed the top part of it.

He ripped the hood off, revealing his face to everyone. He had short black hair, though the thing that caught everyone's attention was his face. His face was covered in dark-red glowing markings and black eyes. His skin was incredibly pale and his mouth was twisted into a big, sadistic grin.

Before anyone could say anything, Vile quickly sent an uppercut towards Natsu, hitting him on the chin, sending him flying up in the air at a rapid speed. Vile regained his posture and looked around.

"What are you looking at?" he said in an almost demonic voice, making the crowd shudder. He began laughing maniacally as he saw all of their faces cringe at his voice. He suddenly stopped and then turned his face upwards. He could see Natsu diving straight down towards him with both his fists ignited in flames.

Vile crouched down and then set off the ground, making the ground beneath him give away as he was heading straight towards Natsu with his own fist wrapped in dark energy.

Their fists met in the middle of the air over Magnolia. Their fists clashing sent streams of fire and dark magic out, creating an astounding visual display over the city of Magnolia. Both of them retreated only to have their fists meet again at another point, both of them flying around the sky clashing against each other, creating flashes of light and darkness.

In one of the clashes Vile managed to land a successful hit on Natsu which sent him flying downwards towards the ground while Vile was still floating in the air looking down at him. Natsu quickly turned around and landed on a rooftop, destroying the tiles on the house.

"**Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame**!" Natsu shouted as he created a ball of fire in each of his hands. He then brought his hands together and created an even larger fireball, which he sent flying towards Vile at a high speed.

Vile looked down at it and then positioned his hands so that his fingers formed a triangle. He faced this triangle towards the fireball and Natsu and yelled, "**Duskbringer**!" A large beam of dark energy shot out from his hands.

When the fireball and the beam collided the fireball was extinguished immediately and the beam headed directly towards Natsu who was about to move as Vile shouted "**Shackle**!"

Natsu froze in place. He could see the beam heading straight towards him... yet no matter how hard he tried he couldn't break the restraints. The beam reached him and he was embraced by the darkness. The beam continued and cut through the house, and the earth beneath it.

Natsu tried to scream but he couldn't move his mouth... It was as if he was being bathed in acid, corroding his skin slowly. After a few seconds the beam finally stopped and the shackles were released.

Natsu dropped down on his knees and watched as Vile slowly came down to his level. Natsu panted heavily while realizing that there was a lot of holes in his clothes. "**Immortal Nightmare; Subside**," he muttered as the markings began to fade and his eyes returned to normal.

His eyes were red.

Natsu looked up at him. "I must commend you. Not many people would still be conscious after that attack. Hell, even alive. But even so you still have a long way to go. If you continue like this you will become stronger than most of the people in the guild. Definitely S-class. But remember... just because you lost this battle doesn't mean you're weak. It just means that you are really bad at picking your opponents," as he said this, he reached out for Natsu.

Natsu grabbed his hand and smiled. "We will fight again," Natsu said as he stood up.

"Wait... didn't you say that you were only going to remove the hood if I defeated you?" he asked, confused.

"That is true, though I figured that your unleashed powers would force me to enter my Nightmare form, due note that when I say force I mean it would have been an equal battle in my previous form. Though an equal battle would mean that I could lose, and I'd prefer not to, since I really want Happy to run that errand for me. Regarding the hood if I had worn it while in the Nightmare form it would've burned away due to the amount of magical power running through the runes on my face. Also, I made a promise to Erza to take the hood off, and I have a feeling that if I break a promise I made with her she would probably try to kill me," he said with a grin on his face.

Only now when Natsu wasn't focused on fighting he realized that Vile looked younger than he had first assumed. Hell, he looked like a person only a few years older than himself.

"I always wondered... how old are you?" he said while inspecting his face.

"I don't know," he shrugged as he jumped down from the building. "I'm heading back to the guild. You coming?" Natsu nodded and jumped down.

**Outside Fairy Tail**

As Natsu approached the guild he could see the crowd was still standing outside waiting for them. It had only been a couple of minutes since they had disappeared into the sky. Natsu waved at them with a smile on his face.

"How did it go?" Makarov asked inquisitively.

"He knocked me out with a spell," Natsu said scratching the back of his head. "I guess I wasn't a match even with the power boost." Erza, who was standing behind Makarov looked at Natsu. With that power boost he was probably almost at her own level and he was still knocked out by a single spell...

"Speaking of which, where is Vile?" Erza asked, as she could not see him.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I think he said something about going home after something and then meeting me back here." As he said that, a person turned a corner at the end of the street. Erza spotted this and turned her attention towards the person.

As the figure came closer she could start seeing some of its features. It was a rather tall man with dark hair. He was wearing a pair of black pants and a black jacket and a grey shirt beneath it. He seemed to be carrying a book in his left hand. He had red eyes, but the most fascinating thing was the runes on his face. There was lines on his face with a black colour. The crowd had now all noticed this person, and were all staring at him. The man stopped in the edge of the crowd, staring back at them. An awkward silence emerged as everyone was staring at this person.

"What are you looking at?" he asked them, raising an eyebrow as he saw all the surprised faces. This time he didn't sound as demonic. The silence continued. Makarov finally decided to break the awkward silence and coughed into his hand.

"Is that you, Vile?" he said while raising an eyebrow.

"Not exactly," he said. "You refer to me as Vile, though my name is not Vile. It's Ksaner, though you may call me Ksan if you wish. Now if there is anything else?" he said while looking through the crowd.

"Yeah... there is one thing," Erza said while looking at him. "What was that thing you did before?" she asked, still a little frightened by the thought.

"It looked like some sort of demon takeover, like Mirajane," Gray added.

"Ah, about that... It's a longer story, and I really do not have the patience to tell it right now, some other time maybe." he said carelessly as he walked around the group and went into the guild.

Makarov chuckled slightly as soon as Ksan was inside of the guild. Natsu turned his head and looked at his laughing master. "What's so funny Gramps?" he asked, slightly confused.

"It's nothing. It's just that I didn't expect him to be young. At all," Makarov said as he shrugged. He does have a point Erza thought to herself. Vi-.. Ksan had seemed older than that. Not just a bit, but a lot. She shrugged. It didn't really matter anyhow.

**Inside the guild**

Ksan was sitting at his usual place in the back end of the room. Ever since the little charade outside of the guild people kept staring at him as if he was some sort of freak show. It bothered him, to say the least.

The doors opened and Natsu and his team went inside. Ksan noticed that they weren't going for their usual place near the bar. They were going towards him. He looked at them with his head slightly turned. They reached the table and sat down next to him.

He had turned his focus away from his and back to the book. "What'cha reading?" Natsu asked. Ksan smirked and slid the book over to him so he could see.

"See for yourself," he said, knowing full well the reaction that he was going to get. "I don't understand any of this," Natsu said as he stared at the pages filled with weird symbols that didn't seem to make sense.

Erza grabbed the book from Natsu and looked at the pages as well. "I think I've seen this somewhere before," Erza muttered as she slid the book back to Ksaner. "I figured you might have. I'll explain later when we have that talk you promised, since I fulfilled my side of the bargain," he said as he smirked at her. Erza blinked and nodded. The rest looked at the two confused though didn't say anything. "Also, Natsu, if possible could you ask Happy to meet me at around midnight tonight?"

"Uuh... sure," he said.

"Where is Happy by the way?" Lucy asked as he hadn't seen him for awhile.

"I think he heard about the fish sale down at the harbour," Natsu grinned.

"Oh! Vil-... Ksan, I meant to ask you, what kind of magic do you use? Because I saw you use shadow magic back in Onibas.. and in Oshibana you used some sort of... box magic.. and just now you used some sort of.. dark magic or demon takeover.." Lucy asked, looking even more confused than when she started to talk.

"I figured you'd ask sooner or later," Ksan said. "Though I'd prefer not to talk about it in the guild. Is there somewhere we can talk that's a bit more private?" he suggested.

"Lucy's house is free!" Natsu said while smiling.

"Why my house!?" Lucy shouted at him.

"Well.. you were the one who wanted to know," Gray added.

"Your clothes, Gray," Cana shouted from the other side of the guild.

**At Lucy's House**

"This place is really nice," he noted as he stepped inside the room. Natsu had already planted himself in a chair around a table. Erza and Gray took the other two chairs while Lucy opened her kitchen windows to vent out the air.

Ksan looked around the place, noticing a stack of papers on Lucy's desk. He looked at it and picked it up and skimmed through the pages. He shrugged and was about to put it back when Lucy came back and saw what he was doing... "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" she shouted angrily as she quickly tore the papers out of Ksan's hands.

"Is that a novel of yours?" he asked.

"None of your business!" she muttered, hugging the papers tightly to her chest.

"I don't see the point in writing when no one is there to read it," he shrugged.

"Anyway, I figured that I should just skip straight to the point," he said. They nodded. Lucy had found a chair for herself and Ksan took the chair they was standing in front of her work desk. "I presume you're all familiar with Natsu's Dragonslayer magic, yes?" he asked. They all nodded again. "Basically, to be a 'true' Dragonslayer you have to learn the magic from a dragon, and so on." he continued.

"But how is this relevant?" Erza interjected.

"I'm getting to it," he muttered. "My magic is somewhat similar to his. You see, I'm also a Slayer," he said and then paused, letting the words sink in.

Natsu smiled and asked happily, "What kind of Slayer are you then? I've only heard of Dragonslayers."

"I'm just a Slayer. That is the purpose of my magic. To kill... I was trained by a demon to become his successor, though I rejected his beliefs and was abandoned. That is why I call my magic Slayer, or Fallen Demon arc. However, as in the magic in of itself, I possess the ability to manipulate shadows, space, poison, acid, fear, pain and even the mind itself. There are several different levels of this magic. You saw the first form, Immortal Nightmare earlier today. That is the first stage of eight so far. From what I can tell each step multiplies my magical power by two of the former state," he said. Erza peered at him... If this was true... then he was probably the most powerful mage in Fairy Tail... maybe even in all of Fiore.

"Though," he added, ending Erza's stream of thoughts. "With each level up, I begin to fuse with the demon within me. I lose my sanity and the only thing that remains within me is the urge to kill and destroy. That is what you saw earlier today. But that was, as I said, only level one." The others gulped as they listened to his words intently. "That is my weakness. Though to a certain extent also my greatest strength. If I'm isolated with an opponent it wouldn't matter if I lost my sanity or not. Fighting without fear of dying, without the fear of pain increases my capabilities to push forward even if I'm losing. Though, when I enter my eighth form I will lose control of my own mind for a longer period of time. Last time it happened I had a memory lapse of over three months. I think it was about the time where you became a S-class mage Erza," he noted as he watched their reactions.

Lucy seemed terrified, Gray and Natsu seemed frightened as well, though they were hiding it quite well. Erza was deep in thought as she always was around Ksan. She did recall not seeing Vile around the time she became S-class. And she also heard rumours about a monster destroying countless cities. She had even considered taking a mission to get rid of the monster... Thinking back on that now that she knew what the monster was, she was kind of glad that she hadn't accepted the request.

"Though there is something else I'd like to say before it comes back and bites me in the ass," he said. The others looked at up at him again, as he said something that they probably wouldn't forget.

"Basically, I wasn't the only one who was taught to be a Slayer. There was another. She was.. is... she was absorbed..." He suddenly got a sad look on his face as he stared down in the table. A frown appeared on his normally careless face.

"This demon... he rejected her, because he thought she was weak, tooweak... He only wanted one person to walk in his footsteps, so he forced me to..." he stopped again. It sounded like he was going to burst into tears any moment now. "He forced me to fight her... and absorb her power... she... I couldn't..." he said, as he began to stutter as the tears began to flood out of his eyes. "S-she was forced to.. I... she became a part of me... willingly, I had stripped her of herself... It was only after that I... I realized what I had done," the others looked concerned at him. It wasn't like the Vile they knew to burst into tears.

He sighed heavily as he managed to regain control over his feelings. "I'm sorry about that," he said as he rubbed his eyes. "What I was getting at is that she is a part of me. The reason I why I'm telling you this is because I've made some promises to her, that mustn't be broken for anything. These promises prevent me from doing what I wish to do myself... as a punishment for what I've done I see it quiet befitting, though it still limits me to a certain extent. One promise was to keep away from other people for five hundred years, or until the time she allows me to do so. That is why I've not talked to anyone before here recently, when the five hundred years was ending."

"So.. you're saying that.. you're over five hundred years old..?"

Ksan nodded and continued, "There was also another thing I promised... something that I regret now that I think back on it." They looked at him in anticipation.

"I promised not to die," he said as an even bigger frown appeared on his face.

They looked at him, confused, but also concerned. Did he wish to die? "Is that really a bad thing?" Lucy asked.

"Have you ever thought of why they put people in prisons?" he said, as he looked up at her.

"Isn't it to make them rethink their actions?" Erza suggested.

"That is true. Life is my prison,, and as long as I live, I will be forced to relive all the horrible things I've done. I personally believe that I deserve to die for all the atrocities I've committed," he said solemnly.

Natsu was just about to interject, and say that even if he had done all those bad things he should atone for them, or something along those lines, but then Ksan continued speaking. "I do realize that dying is the easy way out. Though I do intend to defy that promise I made with her, though only after I've atoned for my sins. And I know how I'm going to do that, though I won't tell you how I'm planning to do it. No offence or anything, but I'd prefer to keep that to myself for a little bit longer. I've already given you enough to think about... Now, is there any questions?"

They sat in silence as they thought about what he had just said. "Who is this demon?" Gray asked.

"It's a long and confusing story. I believe that I'd be able to make you understand later, but now is too soon."

"If you are older than five hundred years, how come you look so young?" Lucy asked.

"Ah... well... that is somewhat related to Gray's question. If you don't know who the demon I referred to is, or where he is, it's going to be hard to explain," he said, shrugging.

"What was that book you had on you earlier?" Erza asked. It had bothered her that she couldn't remember where she had seen them before. "Oh, about that. It's something I'd prefer to tell you, in private. It's something concerning the topic I wished to discuss with you." Erza narrowed her eyes. What did the book have to do with the R-system?

"Speaking of which, is it possible we could have that talk when we are done here?" he suggested.

"Sure."

"Erza's got a date!" Natsu blurted out as he chuckled. Erza blushed slightly but then immediately entered the angry zone, smacking Natsu, hard.

"Shut up."

**Outside Lucy's house**

"So, where you would prefer we talked. Your house or mine?" he asked, staring out at the canal. The way he said it made Erza blush slightly.

"Wait, you actually have a house?" she asked.

"Did you think that I slept in the streets?" he laughed.

"Honestly, I didn't think you slept at all."

"Well, that's not very nice of you," he said jokingly.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry, it's fine."

"I'd actually like to see your house," she said. He looked at her and then nodded.

"It's this way then," he said as he began walking towards the guild. This had been quite an eventful day she thought to herself. This guy is really fascinating, even if he seems to be so... sad.

**In an alley near Fairy Tail**

"We're here." They were standing in a small alley between two houses not far from the guild. There weren't any doors to be seen, only a wooden box containing trash and a bag which contained something which seemed to be moving.

"I don't see anything," she said, merely stating the obvious.

"That's the trick," he said as he raised a finger in the air, as if making a point. "I hid it using some magic since I don't really like uninvited guests. Only the ones who know that it's here can enter," he said as he nodded.

"So the door is hiding by using some sort of magic?"

"Kind of. Watch and learn," he said with a coy smile on his face. He knelt down as he grabbed a piece of chalk from his pocket and then made a small square with it on the ground. He then placed his hand in the middle of the square and said "**Open**." Suddenly the bricks that were beneath them began to retract into the ground, disappearing and leaving them standing on a metal frame. "Just so you know, we are going down," he said as the metal frame began descending into the ground.

The lift went quickly down into the ground. Erza looked up and saw that the bricks had retracted over the hole, cutting off the light from above, though luckily that there was torches placed in holes along the shaft. "How deep is this thing?" Erza asked as Ksan stood up and looked at her.

"Two hundred meters, more or less." The lift stopped all of a sudden as they had reached the bottom. There was a small wooden door in front of them.

**Ksaner's home**

"Welcome to my humble home," he said as he opened the door. The room behind the door was a small corridor with two doors on each side and a door at the end of it. The room was lit up by several lamps hanging down from the ceiling. The floor was made of cut out stone and the walls was made of wood. As Erza stepped into the corridor Ksan had taken his jacket off and was now carrying it over his shoulder.

"Just follow me," he said as he walked towards the door at the end of the corridor. "That's the kitchen," he said as he pointed to the first door to the left and then he pointed at the right, "The bathroom." As they reached the second pair of doors he pointed towards the left. "That's the training room and that's the confinement room," he said as he then pointed to the right. The door on the left was made out of reinforced metal.

"Why would you need a confinement room?" she asked.

He shrugged. "You never know."

They reached the end of the corridor. "This is the living room, slash library," he said as he opened the door. Ksan entered the room. Erza poked her head inside and saw a large room with at least fifty meters to the ceiling. From what she could see there was about a hundred meters down to the other end of the room. The room itself was round. The walls were filled with bookshelves, stuffed with books.

As she stepped inside of the room she noticed that she was standing on a bridge made of glass. She looked down and saw that there was about a hundred meters to the bottom of the room. Her jaw literally dropped to the ground as she saw this. This wasn't really what she had expected when she had first seen the little corridor.

"You coming?" Ksan said as he was walking on a glass bridge towards a large stone pillar in the middle of the room. There was a few chairs placed on top of the pillar. "Yeah..." she said as she stepped onto the glass bridge.

Ksan had already sat down beside a circular wooden table, when she reached the large pillar in the middle of the room.

"What is this place?" she asked as she sat down around a chair beside the same table.

"It's my home. I made it myself. It's nice isn't it?" he said while looking around massive room.

"How long did it take to make?" she asked. It must've taken a lot of time... considering the scale of it.

"About a day, maybe," he shrugged.

"That's quite fast..." she said.

"I did tell you I control spacial magic. It made it quite a lot easier."

"Ah, I see. Now what did you want to talk about?" Erza asked.

"Ah, about that. I figured you'd want to know that the R-system is nearing completion. I suspect it will be complete in about a month or two," he said in a very serious tone. Erza raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

"And what has this to do with me?" she asked, trying to feign ignorance. Maybe I could drag some information out of him she thought.

"I figured that you'd be more upset about this... considering the reason you've been training so hard ever since you arrived in Fairy Tail was to save your friends." Erza peered at him more intensely. How did he know about them... "Though that is not the thing that I want to talk to you about. It's about the person you call Jellal," he said calmly.

"What do you know about Jellal!" she shouted suddenly, pushing the chair back as she stood up. Her words echoed throughout the room as Erza starred angrily at him. The chair fell back and hit the ground. Silence crept it's way into the room as they stared at each other.

Ksan sighed, "Would you please calm down?" he asked her politely. "I understand that this is a sensitive topic but I don't see a way around it," he added as he crossed his arms. Erza's breathing became slower as she turned around to pick up the chair.

"I'm sorry," she said as she sat down.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a smile on his face.

The smile soon faded as he spoke again, "About Jellal... When the system is completed, someone will have to stop him right?" Erza nodded. "Are you prepared to do what's necessary to stop him?" Erza swallowed and then nodded again. "Even if it means killing him?"

Silence.

"Y-yes..." she said softly

"That's good... then I need not worry. Though, I just want you to know that when the time comes, I'll be there to help you. That much I can assure you," he said as she watched a faint smile reappear on her frowning face.

"Now, about the book and how I know all these things..." he stood up and walked over to the edge. "Level five." The whole started to rotate as the bridge and pillar began going down towards the bottom of the room. It stopped about twenty meters above the bottom. He stepped out onto the bridge, and as he walked towards the wall the bridge began to rotate around the pillar, leading him towards the place he was looking for. He reached the wall and grabbed a book, then turned around and walked back. When he reached the table he threw the book in front of Erza. It was a black book with a red symbol on it.

"That's the mark of Zeref. I do believe you are familiar with it," he said as he went to his chair and sat down. Erza stared at the book. "As far as I recall, you were taken in and bound to some sort of crystal at the R-system. That is where you know the symbols from. That crystal is related to both Zeref and me. We both use the same language," he said as he pointed towards the book, "Zeref used to be a Slayer, like me. Though something went wrong and he was stuck in an eternal state of insanity after entering one of his later stages." Ksan could feel Erza's eyes bore into him as he stood up and walked to the edge.

"The crystal you were bound to was originally created to force people into submission. The people they were supposed to follow was the slayers. Basically, there are two slayers in this world as far as I recall. Zeref, and myself. That is why you felt his presence when you were bound the crystal, though he didn't take you over. That was my doing... the reason why I couldn't help Jellal was because of Zeref's proximity to the R-system. He was closer than myself, and also at a higher state. I spent all my power securing your mental borders, so I didn't have enough to help your friend sadly."

"You should have abandoned me and helped him instead!" Erza shouted standing up again, this time not knocking back the chair.

"I didn't know that there was going to be another victim. I didn't know under which conditions you were being held. I only figured it out after Jellal had been captured. The reason why I know so much about your goals is because ever since Jellal was taken over not only Zeref has been within his mind, but I've also been in there." Erza stood silently, glaring at him angrily. She was considering killing him... or at least stabbing him in the leg just to injure him...

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't intend to involve myself. Though when a connection between a Slayer and a mortal is created, all Slayers are bound to this mortal to a certain extent. Basically you're forced to take a look inside of this mortals head, and you have the ability to watch through their eyes, though only the Slayer that formed the bond with the mortal will be able to control the mortal. That is why I failed to help him. And that is why I intend to end his suffering. Even if it means killing him," he said as he turned around. His face expressing every ounce of seriousness available.

"The reason I'm telling you all this is because I wanted to warn you. I'm familiar with the bond you had with the kid known as Jellal, but I'm sad to say he's gone now. And I doubt that he will ever be able to return to normal," he said with a very cold demeanour.

"I see.." she whispered to herself.

"I apologize if this is too much and too sudden for you." Ksan smiled at her, dropping the serious look on his face.

"Just one last thing... was Zeref abandoned as well?"

"No... he wasn't as much abandoned as kicked out. Originally there were three apprentices. Zeref was the third, though he proved to be weak and lost his mind in the later stages. He attempted to harm me and the second one, so I banished him to this plane. That is also why I feel a need to clean up after his mess," he noted.

What did he mean by plane? Erza looked at him confused for a second, but then he left out a long sigh and then he finally walked back to the table and picked the book up again.

"Are all these books in this language?" she asked. She had figured that changing the topic to something less... dark would be a good idea.

"No. I've compiled a collection of every single book I've ever come across, in this very room," he said smiling. "If you're interested you could borrow some," he shrugged.

"I'll think about it," though what she wasn't telling him was that she would never consider borrowing her usual books from him.

"Is there anything else? If not I've got other matters to attend to."

"I should be good for now," she said as she walked to the edge.

"How exactly do I get out of here?"

Ksan chuckled.

**At night outside Fairy Tail**

"Are you sure you can do this Happy?" Ksan asked the cat. He was wearing his hood and cloak again.

"Aye! I promised Natsu!" Happy said with a big grin on his face.

"Good, just don't get caught."

**Next morning in Fairy Tail**

"Master!" Mirajane shouted as she ran down the stairs from the second floor.

"Mhm?" Makarov grunted while taking another sip of his coffee.

"One of the requests on the second floor has disappeared!" she said while looking quite concerned. Makarov spat out the liquid in his mouth.

"Say what? A request is gone?" Wakaba muttered.

"If it was put on the second floor, then it's an S class right?" Macao asked rhetorically.

"Who would be stupid enough to take something like that?" Laki asked.

"A cat." Laxus leaned back in his chair on the second floor looking down at the bar with a smug grin on his face.

"I saw a cat with wings tear one off around midnight."

"Happy did?" Mirajane asked... "That means it's Natsu and Lucy?"

"This is quite a serious violation of the rules. If they make it back, they will be expelled... Right, old man? But of course with their skills they won't come back, will they?" he asked while looking down at Makarov, his grin becoming wider.

"Laxus, if you knew this, why didn't you try to stop them?" Mirajane asked angrily as she had gone up to the second floor to face him.

"All I saw was a cat running off with a piece of paper. I didn't know it was Happy. And I never thought that Natsu would be stupid enough to go on an S-class quest." Mirajane's stare became darker, almost showing murderous intent in her eyes. There was no way to describe how much his arrogance annoyed her, and the fact that he just let them go...

Laxus looked at her and chuckled slightly. "It's been a while since you last looked at me like that."

"This is no good," Makarvo stated. "Which request is missing?" he asked, looking up at Mira.

"Galuna," she said, still glaring at Laxus. The guild went quiet for a moment.

"What?" Makarov's eyes shot open. "Laxus! Go bring them back!" he ordered his grandson.

"You've got to be kidding me. I've got work to do. Didn't you say that wizards in this guild were supposed to be able to take care of themselves? Right?" Laxus's grin suddenly turned darker, enjoying the scene.

"Who other than you in here has the power to bring Natsu back by force?" Makarov shouted angrily. He heard someone stand up behind him. He turned around and saw that it was Gray.

"Gramps... I can't let him get away with this."

**In front of Fairy Tail**

"Where are you going Gray?" Ksan asked as he saw Gray exit the wooden doors of Fairy Tail.

He was wearing his normal attire which consisted of a cloak and a hood. Gray was wearing grey pants and a white shirt.

"Natsu and Lucy have gone on an S-class quest, and I'm going to bring them back," he said with a stern look on his face. Ksan saw that Gray was clenching his fist quite hard from what he could see.

"Oh, I see," Ksan mumbled, seemingly thinking about something. Gray raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do you mind if I tag alone? Sounds like it might be interesting," Ksan asked.

"You make it sound as if we are going to help them," Gray said, narrowing his eyes.

"Of course, and the only reason why I'm going with you is to subdue you when we reach Natsu and Lucy and force you to come with us to wherever they are going," Ksan said sarcastically, a faint grin appearing on his face. Luckily for him Gray picked up on his sarcasm and smirked at his remark.

"So, where exactly did they go?"

"They took a request that involves removing a curse from an island called Galuna. The closest city to the island is Hargeon, so that is where we are going," Gray said as he began moving towards Magnolia station. 'This is going just as planned' Ksan thought, the idea summoning a chuckle.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Ksan quickly reassured him as he waved a hand dismissively.

'Maybe I shouldn't have let him join after all... he seems a bit to excited... or whatever you might call it... but I guess I can't really refuse him. He did help us in Oshibana so I guess it's the least I could do. And if that idiot, Natsu, has already dragged Lucy and Happy on to that cursed island his power would come in handy... I guess it's a win-win situation' Gray figured, not knowing exactly what Ksan had planned if he had even planned anything.

They reached the train station in a matter of minutes. The large building was swarming with people, creating a cluster of bodies in the hall inside of the station. They managed to get through the crowd and found the train that lead to Hargeon.

**Hargeon**

The train ride there had been quite awkward if you asked Gray. He had attempted to start a conversation with Ksan several times but seemingly he didn't want to talk, at all. He had been reading in a book the entire way here.

They stepped out of the station a wave of fresh ocean air hit them. It tasted salty in their mouths, as they began making their way towards the harbour.

The city itself had barely recovered from the destruction Natsu had caused not so long ago. As they passed by some rubble, that, from what Ksan could tell used to be a house, Ksan stopped.

"I heard Natsu went and destroyed some of the town but I never figured it would be at this scale," he muttered to himself. Gray had stopped and was now looking at him.

"He doesn't really know when to hold back," Gray shrugged. "But It's not all his fault. As far as I've heard there was some other person, actually pretending to be the 'Salamander' from Fairy Tail... He did some of the destroying as well.. though I guess Natsu did probably do the most." Ksan looked at him for a second. Granted, he hadn't known him for that long.

He didn't really know much about him either, all he knew was things he had gotten to know through that person. And to think he would finally be meeting her face to face, it thrilled him slightly.

A vein popped into his forehead as he still had to deal with Natsu and the rest. He had planned for them to come along, though there was still an... unpredictability with people from Fairy Tail. Especially Natsu.

Though in the end there was only one possible outcome to this whole situation. At least if you asked Ksan.

"Is something bothering you?" Gray asked. Ksan had been staring at the rubble for almost a minute or so, and he seemed to be clenching his fist, if only a bit. Ksan quickly looked up and shook his head, ending the flow of thoughts.

"I'm fine," he said quickly, reassuring Gray. "I'm just a bit tired, that's all." Gray raised an eyebrow.

"If you're tired why didn't you sleep in the train?" Ksan narrowed his eyebrows. 'It's as if he's suspicious of me... of everything I do,' Ksan shrugged away the thought.

"I don't like to sleep with moving. I get nauseous," he said casually as he turned towards Gray. "Though we really should be looking for them," he said, his tone turning serious. "I guess you're right," Gray noted as he brought a hand up to rub his temples...

'I don't get why I'm feeling so uneasy around him... it's not like I dislike him.. do I? I mean... it's fine when I'm with him, when there's other people around... but when I'm alone with him, he just... gives me this feeling.' Gray shrugged. 'It's not worth thinking about probably. I've got to find Natsu before he drags Lucy into something stupid,' Gray thought. What he didn't know was that he wasn't the only one who had this ill feeling about Ksan. After their talk last night Erza had the exact same feeling, possibly worse. Ksan slowly walked past Gray and went towards the harbour.

"The longer we wait, the more time they have to find a boat," Ksan said casually. Gray quickly shook his head, returning back to materialized world. "Yeah..." he said as he turned around to follow Ksan.

**Hargeon Harbour**

"We're looking for someone to take us to Galuna!" Natsu said happily to the two fishermen that stood before him and Lucy.

"Galuna..? You mean the cursed island? No way, I'm not going anywhere near that place!" one of them said as he took off. The other one followed suit.

Natsu sighed heavily. "I told you! We should just swim there!" Natsu said, turning his face towards Lucy.

"We're finding a boat, and that's that," Lucy said stubbornly. Natsu sighed again.

"You shouldn't want to go to Galuna. The island is cursed." Natsu's head flew up, looking for the owner of the voice. It was a man covered in a greenish cloak and a headband of the same colour. His skin was light-brown and he had a funny moustache.

"We want to go there to lift the curse!" Natsu said.

The man shook his head. "It's too dangerous for kids like you."

"Hey, who did you just call a ki-.." Natsu stopped mid-sentence.

He turned his head and looked at his shoulder. A hand had suddenly appeared. And an annoying chill came from the hand. Natsu quickly turned around, pushing the hand off of him. Gray was standing right behind him, looking quite ominously at him.

"What are you doing here, Gray!" Natsu almost yelled.

"I came to bring you three idiots back," he said calmly, glaring at both Lucy and Happy, who both had started to creep away from him.

Lucy and Happy stopped abruptly. Just like before with Natsu, Lucy felt a hand on her shoulder and Happy yelped quietly as a hand wrapped around his tail.

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice said. It was easy to hear the joy in the voice. Lucy slowly turned her head and saw Ksan stand behind her. She shrieked and jumped away from him. She stared at him for a second. She heard something but wasn't quite sure what it was... Happy looked at Ksan very apologetically.

"They forced me to come, I didn't have a choice!" the cat spurted out.

"You traitor!" Lucy shouted. She quickly quieted down again, looking at Ksan, slightly worried. He hadn't made a sound since he had grabbed them. Though she could hear something but was unsure at first, but then later she could definitely hear a form of laughter coming from him. At this point Natsu and Gray had already started fighting, with a hint of magic every now and again. The man in the boat looked at them for a second, before realizing something.

"Are you mages?" he asked out of nowhere. It almost sounded like he was a bit happy about this.

"Yeah!" Natsu said enthusiastically.

Ksan stopped laughing as the man had spoken up again, "And the reason you want to go to Galuna is to rid the island of the curse?" he said, sounding quite happy about the last response.

"Yus," Natsu replied, giving him a thumps up and a grin.

"I'm not letting you go anywhere!" Gray almost shouted at him.

The man ignored Gray and quickly said, "Get in."

A grin appeared on Natsu's face. The man's words had distracted Gray enough to allow Natsu to land a cheap-shot on him, knocking him out. "Let's go!" he quickly said, but stopped just as fast as he had begun.

He had been so focused on Gray that he had completely overlooked Ksan, who was standing right behind Lucy and Happy. An awkward silence emerged from the situation. 'If it comes to a fight it probably won't end well' Natsu thought to himself, remembering the fight they had... even if it did hurt his pride, he had to admit it was probably better to just give up... though the silence was suddenly broken by Ksan.

"Go ahead, I won't stop you. I intended to come all along, that is, if you will have me," he said.

Natsu sighed in relief, as did Lucy and Happy. "Sure!" Natsu said happily, giving Ksan a thumps up as he jumped onto the boat with Gray slung over his shoulder.

**On a boat near Galuna**

"If you go to that island, misfortune will fall upon you... Can you really undo the curse?" Bobo asked. He quickly swung his cape away from his left arm, revealing an arm that looked like it belonged to a monster, if nothing else.

"The demon curse," he said, with a slight frown upon his face.

"Your arm..." Gray said, staring at disbelief at the man before him.

"The curse.. you don't mean..?" Lucy added. Ksan leaned back and watched the man, not emitting a sound.

"You can see it now," Bobo said as he raised his head. In the distance, in the middle of the ocean, there was a small island with some sort of light coming from the peak of a mountain.

"That's Galuna Island," he said, staring at the island.

"There's... some sort of light coming from the top of the island," Lucy said, wondering what it could be. She turned her head around and saw that the man had disappeared.

"Huh? Where did he go?" she exclaimed. Truth be told she didn't enjoy the situation. It was too scary for her taste. Ksan was sitting silently in the back of the boat, looking up into the night sky.

"Huh? Did he fall overboard?" Gray asked, looking into the water around the little boat. "He must have disappeared when we weren't looking," Happy deduced...

The boat began wavering more than it did before. There was also a rumbling sound coming from somewhere. "What is that sound?"

Author Notes: And so we arrive at the same point, again. Towards Galuna Island... I'll try to update within a week or two, which is better than the 10 months I spent getting here, to actually editing it. Anyway, yeah.


	3. Void

He recognized the roof. In the dimly lit room, the roof was something he had become accustomed to seeing over several occasions. The rest was fleeting, always changing, but the roof was the same, always the first thing he would notice when he woke up. As he laid on the hospital bed, gazing absentmindedly at the roof, watching the dust illuminated by the soon to be set sun waver in front of his eyes, he heard an almost inaudible noise coming from the side of him. He slowly turned his head, whilst blinking rapidly, the reddening sun burning into his retina, blinding him briefly before his eyes grew accustomed to the light. The figure was sitting on a chair, slumped slightly, leaning on the armrest.

She looked so peaceful, so carefree as she sat there, her long scarlet hair matching the crimson sun as it set, and her serene face captivating the very essence of the white clouds, that were silently swirling around in the horizon far behind her. Of course, he was not able to express it, but it still brought a smile upon his face, a smile that had seemed long absent, for reasons that he could not explain.

A wave of nausea washed over him, causing him to groan slightly. As soon his voice escaped his lips, he saw how a pair of brown eyes ripped open from their passive slumber and immediately fixated upon his own.

"Ah, you're finally awake Natsu," she exclaimed with a wistful expression that quickly disappeared behind her normal mask, all the while trying to regain a proper sitting position on the chair.

Natsu groaned once more, slowly raising himself from his lying position, resting himself against the headboard. "What happened?" he asked, still feeling in a momentary state of dizziness.

Erza shook her head briefly, before stating; "I don't know. You went off to Galuna like some idiot and dragged Lucy with you, and for what I have been told you managed to 'subdue' Gray, bringing him along as well. I went after you the day after Gray, though when I was sailing towards Galuna Ksaner suddenly appeared out of nowhere and dropped the three of you off…he said something along the lines of 'take them back, I've managed to get things under control, but just barely'. I listened to him and now you're back here."

"And you just went back?" Natsu said almost accusingly, leaning forward towards her, although stopping abruptly, realizing what he had just said and backed off again…he did not know why he had done that.

"When he dropped you off…well, let's just say that I didn't really have the chance to argue with him…" Erza said, looking away for a moment or two, before returning her gaze to Natsu.

"What do you mean?" Natsu said, perplexed by her sudden passivity. It was so unlike anything he knew about her.

"You know how he told us that when he entered his higher stages or whatever it was, that he would grow more insane?" Erza asked.

Natsu nodded, clearly recalling what he had been told about Ksaner becoming more insane the more powerful he became.

"Let's just say that it was probably for the best that I listened to him," she said, a shiver running down her spine, an unfamiliar feeling for her. She could clearly recall the twisted voice that was oddly familiar come out of nowhere, how suddenly he had appeared with his hands holding tightly in their collars, and them limply hanging down.

It had scared her at first, not his sudden appearance but the prospect of them being dead, though the fear was quickly carnalized into a barrage of questions as to what exactly happened to them, and who he was. It was only after he told her who he was that the puzzle began coming together. She had quickly realized that it was Ksaner in one of his later stages, which it was she is still unsure of, but from the overwhelming amount of power radiating from him, she could guess it was pretty far along the line. He told her to take them back and not ask any questions, something, which she was quite unhappy with, that she knew he knew, as he immediately after that almost haphazardly dropped the three of them onto the deck of the pirate ship she had _used_ to get to Galuna, and then he vanished.

Stubbornly, she had told the _sailors_ to proceed towards Galuna, and although they…voiced their concern, it was not long before they caved in and continued their little voyage. When the island eventually entered the horizon that was when she finally decided to follow his advice. It was only after she saw the miniscule shape of, what she presumed to be a massive creature on the island, along with the rampant fire and the dark smoke trails that she had decided to turn around, albeit she was not happy to do so, still.

Of course, she wasn't going to tell any of this to Natsu. He didn't need to know any of that, or at least that's what she decided on her own.

Natsu shrugged, looking juts as displeased as before. "Oh, by the way, where's Gray and Lucy?" he asked, finally realizing that they had been with him the last time he remember, well, anything.

Erza just gestured towards the other side of the infirmary, where the two adjacent beds to him was filled with his team member and his captive. They were still resting firmly with their eyes closed. Natsu followed her gesture, after which he quickly turned back towards her with a somewhat anxious look, and Erza said with a smile; "They are fine, just give them some time," although after saying that, she turned away briefly again, the wistful expression that had previously been eradicated sprung back up out of nowhere, only to be beaten down for a second time.

"What about Ksaner, has he come back yet, or...?"

"He has still not come back yet, but Master is sure he'll arrive sooner rather than later, at least that's what he told me when I asked…" Erza said, her eyes trailing off towards the window. The sun was near the end of its duration upon the sky. It had only been about twelve hours ago she had first seen Galuna…the image was still fresh in her mind, no matter how much she tried to get rid of it. It had seen almost apocalyptic, with the giant figure raised above all else on the island…it wasn't because she was unfamiliar in regards to defeating larger enemies, but the sound it made when it screeched…even thinking about it sent chills down her spine. She had been so far away, and yet it resonated clearly all the way out to her. It was overwhelming, overpowering, as if an unfathomably large being was towering over her and crushing her down with its voice alone. The worst part was probably the fact that she had no idea what it was. It reminded her of the creature that Ksaner had taken care of back in Oshibana, just bigger, which in her head seemed like a stupid thought, but she couldn't deny what she had seen.

She shook her head and stood up from the chair. "You should go back to rest. We won't find out what happened until Ksaner gets back," she said, towering over Natsu, who, albeit reluctantly, lowered himself from the headboard, back into his original lying position.

Erza stayed until she was convinced Natsu was actually sleeping and not just waiting for her to leave. It didn't take long until she heard a peaceful snore coming from his bed. She nodded with a satisfied smile that quickly vanished and headed towards the door, glancing towards Lucy and Gray whilst walking past them. They were still sleeping soundly, though she could clearly see a pained expression upon Gray's face…she did not know why it was there…there were so many things she didn't know anything about, and it frustrated her tremendously. She wanted to help as much as she could, she would under no circumstances leave another friend to suffer with her standing on the sidelines doing nothing, but she couldn't do anything.

All she could do was wait for Ksaner to come back from whatever the hell was happening on Galuna, and force him to tell her what happened. With that mentality, she exited the room, only to immediately meet Mira-Jane who was standing patiently outside the door, waiting for her to come out.

Erza could easily tell what was on her mind just from the look on her face. Sighing slightly, Erza said; "They're still sleeping…Natsu woke up briefly. I don't think he remembers anything, anyhow, he's sleeping again."

Mira simply nodded with the same concerned expression on her face and walked past Erza, heading into the room she had just left. The door silently closed behind her. She felt like sighing again, but resisted the temptation. There was no need for her to stand around doing nothing when she could be waiting in the main hall for Ksaner to return, not that her waiting there would speed anything up, she knew that, but maybe it could calm her nerves a bit.

When she eventually reached the main hall, there was a quiet buzzing, which normally indicated that most of the loudmouths were absent or occupied by other matters. She looked around and saw nothing out of ordinary, apart from the fact that everything was ordinary. She shrugged it off and blamed it on the turmoil her return with the unconscious Natsu, Lucy and Gray.

Most people had decided it was for their best of interest to leave just after asking what had happened to them, simply because of the tension they could feel as soon as Makarov had appeared and questioned Erza as to what had happened. Her answer was quite obviously not satisfying, which would explain why he had been sitting on the bar counter ever since Erza had told him her story.

She made her way towards the counter, but stopped halfway there, shooting a glance towards the door. She quietly sighed and changed direction, walking towards the large wooden door now. When she eventually reached it, she opened it and stepped outside into the cool, refreshing air. Erza looked around and saw no one except a couple of stray citizens who seemed to be oblivious to her presence.

The clouds had moved in front of the sun, just before it could disappear beneath the horizon.

She took a deep breath, after which she headed back into the temperate guildhall. She saw that Makarov was looking at her, so she just shook her head lightly, after which she sighed and sat down at the nearest table. She sat there for quite a while, and as the seconds passed her by, she became more drowsy and tired; after all, she had experienced quite a stressful day, especially considering she was woken up so early in the morning. She had barely managed to avoid falling into a deeper slumber whilst waiting for Natsu to awaken, but sitting in the stuffy air in the guildhall was too much for her to handle. No matter how hard she tried to keep her eyelids from sliding down, they would eventually shut despite her efforts.

The guildhall soon faded, replaced by a heavy darkness that weighed upon her eyes, and by proxy, her mind.

She wasn't sure how long it had been, but she was sure it had been too long. As soon as she had opened her eyes, she saw that Makarov wasn't on the counter anymore, and that the lamps had been replaced with the natural light emerging from the windows. The light was casting long shadows, reaching deep into the main hall. It was still early.

Erza raised herself from the table, and whilst doing do inadvertently pushed off a familiar black cloak that had been laid upon her resting body. A brief smile or at least something she thought to be a smile crossed her lips as she picked up the cloak and placed it carefully on the table. With renewed vigor, she strode through the hall towards the counter, where Mira-Jane was standing, carefully cleaning a pair of drinking glasses.

Before Erza could say anything, Mira noticed her and said "Good morning Erza," with that familiar smile of hers.

Erza nodded in response. "When did Ksaner get back?" she asked hastily.

Mira raised an eyebrow. "So it was his cloak, of course, I knew I'd seen it somewhere before," she said.

"That doesn't really answer my question," she said. "Furthermore, why didn't you just wake me when you came?"

"Well, you looked so sweet sleeping there; I couldn't get myself to wake you."

Erza flinched. If it was any other member in the guild that had said that, they would've been lying on the ground in an instant. She silently cursed her own consideration.

"Oh, and I don't really know when Ksaner came back. I just back here actually…though if you want to know you could probably go ask him. I think he's still at Master's office."

Erza nodded and left immediately, heading straight towards Makarov's office, or more importantly, towards Ksaner. She arrived there shortly after their little conversation. As she approached the door, it opened before she had the opportunity to do so, and Ksaner stepped out. He was wearing a plain pair of black pants and a white west, though Erza didn't care the least what he was wearing.

"Ksaner, I want answers," she stated as soon as the door had closed behind him.

He simply looked at her, sighed heavily. "Can we talk about this outside?" he asked.

"We can talk on the way outside," she insisted.

A sigh once again escaped his lips, although he quickly nodded afterwards. "Ask away until you're satisfied I guess…" he said in a semi-submissive tone as he started walking down the corridor towards the door leading to the balcony.

"What happened on that island, why were you there, what happened to Natsu, Lucy and Gray, what was that big monster I saw in the distance, what was that form you appeared in and-"

"One thing at a time. I can't answer all of your questions at once, so calm down at take them one at a time, please."

Erza took a deep breath, before speaking again. "What happened on Galuna?"

"Right, well, I'll start at the beginning. The whole reason the request was put out was a group that used something called moon drip to corrode an ice tomb, in which one of Zeref's demons, Deliora laid buried. What you saw me fighting was that demon, simple as that."

They reached the door leading to the balcony. Ksaner opened it, stepped through it and held the door until Erza had gone through as well.

"What happened Natsu, Gray and Lucy then?" Erza asked, keeping her eyes fixated on him.

He took a deep breath of the fresh air and looked at the early morning sun that still hung low on the horizon. "I knocked them out," he said plainly.

"What?! Why!?" Erza almost yelled, though managed to keep her temper under…mild control.

"I just arrived as Deliora was awakening, though I quickly assessed the situation and they seemed to want to fight it. If they had fought it, they would've died as well, for sure, so in a sense I saved them for certain death…" he said, resting his arms on the railing.

"I…see. But why did you first arrive when Deliora awakened…why did you arrive in the first place?" Erza asked, still quite befuddled by all of it.

"I heard that Natsu and Lucy had taken off to complete an S-class request, so when Gray left to pursue them, I followed out of boredom, mostly. When we reached Hargeon, I was caught up in inspecting the damages that Natsu had caused during his fight with that pretender or whatever it was some time ago. As far as I know, Gray left me and went to look for them by himself, he found them, he was overpowered, and they went together to Galuna, without me being aware. When I realized that they were traveling towards Galuna, I tried to find a method of transport as well, but all of the sailors were down right refusing to go there, so I staying until late night, where I convinced one of the strongly inebriated sailors to give me a map over the local sea, after which I began making my way there myself. My timing in contrast to the revival of Deliora was completely coincidental."

"Wait…if Deliora was one of Zeref's demons, then wouldn't you have known about it?" she said, somewhat accusingly.

"I did know about it, an-,"

"If you knew about it, then why didn't you do anything?!"

Ksaner sighed and removed his arms from the railing, only to cross them whilst turning towards Erza. "If you could just stop interrupting me that would be great."

"I'm sorry, it's just that…you knew, and yet you didn't care enough to do anything before things spiraled out of control and H-,"

"Look, I was just about to tell you that last time I checked, Deliora was dead, as in, deceased. If I had known that they had the magic to revive Deliora, don't you think I would've been the first to do something about it? How was I supposed to know anyway? I'm not some omniscient being from another planet, I have my own limitations and I really don't appreciate the fact that you keep harking on them! I am not god, and why should I be blamed for that?!" he yelled back at her, his face contorted into an amalgamation of anger and frustration.

Erza took a step back for reasons she not quite understood. The outburst had completely caught her off guard. It was unwarranted, at least if you asked her, although she could maybe understand it…but then again, the whole problem could be boiled down to the simple fact that she really didn't know the man who stood in front of her.

The sound of the ever-buzzing city slowly crept into the silence that had so abruptly appeared amidst their now fractured conversation. The sun had slowly crept its way a little further up from the horizon.

"Look," Ksaner started, his voice much calmer now. "I'm sorry…it's been a long day and I haven't slept for I don't know how long…so just ask the rest of your questions so I can go home…please."

Erza just stood there for a couple of seconds looking out over the city before answering. "I think you answered everything…well…are you sure that he is… you know?"

"The entire island is gone, Erza…if he really did make it off the island, I don't think he would have the magic resources to make it all the way inland…" he said in a calm and sympathetic tone. "There's nothing we, or anyone else for that matter, could have done in order to save…well, that entire situation really. We just have to accept it and learn to live with it, no matter how painful that might be…I would know," he said, a careful smile emerging at the end of the sentence.

The words hung in the air for a brief moment or two, before Erza said; "I'm going to check in on them…hopefully they've all awoken by now."

"Natsu and the rest?" he asked.

Erza nodded in response.

"Don't be too hard on them…the worst part is still to come," he said, before walking back into the building, leaving behind Erza who lingered on the balcony for a little while.

"I know…"

* * *

><p>Author Notes; Been a while since I last updated, but that was mostly because that Galuna presented a large obstacle for me, for reasons that will remain disclosed. Anyway, I was planning to make this chapter longer, however it just ended up, well, ending so nicely. It shouldn't be too long until the next update, since I've got a pretty clear path on where I'm taking it from now on, and there shouldn't be any major obstacles in the future of this story.<p>

I'd also like to note that the style of writing and format is bound to be different from the last two chapters, mostly because of how long ago the first two were written, in contrast to this one. It shouldn't be too big of a deal, I just thought I'd note it. Anyhow, that's just about it. I hope you enjoy, and so on and so forth.

There will be more coming.


	4. Broken

"Where is Happy?"

Those words were the first things Ksaner heard as he opened the door into the infirmary, where Natsu, Lucy and Gray had been recuperating, and where Erza had been explaining her newfound information to them, though to be more specific she was waiting for Ksaner to come in, so that he could answer the only question that was on Natsu's mind. After he had left her on the balcony, Erza had promptly caught up with him again, demanding him to explain what happened to Happy to them, since she didn't feel comfortable doing it herself. He had obliged albeit rather reluctantly.

As soon as Ksaner had entered the room, Natsu was already in his face, waiting eagerly for an answer to the question, although deep down he knew that it would not end well, although he did well in ignoring that possibility. When he had woken up the day before, his mind had been hazy and to be frank, he wasn't sure whether or not he had actually woken up, or if it had been a dream. It might have been, but he had realized that it wasn't when Erza had asked him if could remember anything else since last night. He hadn't actually remembered anything, until he randomly saw a cart filled with fish stroll by on the street outside the window, which for some strange reason reminded him of Happy, whom up until that point had been completely forgotten. It was as if his entire existence had been completely erased, or blocked out, which it was: he was not sure.

When he remembered Happy, he had asked Erza rather hastily, but she had just deflected the question with that wistful expression that she had been wearing rather frequently, ever since she had seen Ksaner near Galuna. Natsu was not normally one to react to subtle hints, but he knew what she meant when he saw that expression, although he still refused to acknowledge it until he heard the definite words. Words he was truly, utterly dreading.

Ksaner closed the door behind him, and sighed deeply, which only seemed to increase the worry shown on Natsu's face. "I'm afraid," he began, and as soon as he had said those two words, Natsu turned away from Ksaner and looked around bewildered, almost like a child who got lost. "That Happy isn't here anymore…" Ksaner said, finishing his sentence, as well as finishing the illusion Natsu had created in his mind.

Happy is dead. Those words resounded within Natsu's mind as his head sunk lower and lower. His face contorting into a fusion between anger, pain and sorrow. It was not long before the tears started to pour like a torrent from his eyes, and with it, the insatiable sobbing. It was as if his heart had been forcibly torn out of his chest, along with everything connected to it…the pain was unbearable, it was overwhelming and it was all consuming. He did not hear any of the comforting words from Erza, nor the angry questions to Ksaner. He did not see how Lucy was trying to keep herself from crying. There was nothing anyone could have said or done that could overpower the grief that consumed his entire world.

After fifteen minutes of solicitous silence, in which Lucy's attempt at trying not to cry had failed, Gray had managed to bottle up his anger, confusion and the relentless questions as to what happened. Erza was trying to continuously comfort Natsu, although she had given up ten minutes ago, letting him be alone with his feelings, as her compassion didn't seem to help. And finally Natsu, whom had eventually managed to stop weeping incessantly, and was now resting on his knees, his face submerged in darkened shadows, with the eventual tear drop falling from his bloodshot eyes. Ksaner just stood there, watching each of them react to the news, with an apathetic facial expression, something, which Gray had been quick to notice and had promptly inquired as to why he could look so careless. He had tried to brush it off; however, Gray, deluded by the loss of Happy had continued to question him in an ever-louder voice, only to stop when Erza eventually told him to do so.

Back in the present, Natsu finally looked up. His eyes were red and his cheeks were still stained by the diminishing flow of tears. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at Ksaner, with a mask that was on the verge of breaking. "H-…how did he die?" Natsu asked with a shaky voice, a voice that was teetering on the edge of yet another breakdown, yet somehow managed to bolster whatever strength was left inside of him.

"I don't know exactly how it happened, but…" Ksaner started, glancing over at Erza.

She was at first surprised by this action, mostly because she had imagined him to state it bluntly without consideration…maybe not the nicest perception, but nevertheless the one she had. Hesitantly, she nodded, hoping with every inch of her being that it was the right decision.

"He was…used, so to speak, by the cultists. The thing is, Deliora wa-," Ksaner began, but was rather abruptly interrupted by Gray.

"That thing really was Deliora?! Wait…what happened to Lyon?!" he almost shouted at Ksaner, jumping up from the bed.

"Could you just…try to calm down, I'll explain everything, so please, be patient," Ksaner said, with as much sympathy as he could.

Gray furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance, but gave up in the end and nodded reluctantly, after which he sat down on the bed again.

"As I was saying, Deliora was actually dead…the spell that was used to seal it slowly drained whatever was left of its magic over the years, eventually killing it, but as far as I know, the cultists possessed some hex doctor that could control time, as well as some other person with an almost insurmountable amount of knowledge in regards to transmutation of living creatures. It's unfathomable that they were in possession of both those things, but that's how it turned out. Anyhow, they somehow managed to capture Happy and funnel his magic essence, which in this case roughly translates to his soul, or spirit, into Deliora replenishing it entirely and reviving it from the dead," Ksaner explained slowly and clearly.

"But Happy didn't have the magic to fuel that…monster," Erza noted, looking somewhat skeptically at Ksaner.

"That's true, however when Deliora, as well as Lullaby, were initially created, Zeref used a normal magic essence, weaving it into the monsters that we know. Transmutation of living creatures are dependent on the one who made the transmutation to begin with, and how powerful he is. The more powerful the mage, the more efficient will the container be spending each newly acquired soul. Essentially, the mage can create a vessel that feasts on souls and grows stronger with each new soul it obtains, but never truly requires more than a single spark of magic to function at full capacity. That's why it's so dangerous if those kinds of demons first start their onslaught, because at the end they have the potential to become unstoppable, even if the original spell is subpar, which in this case, it wasn't. It took a lot to bring it down, and the collateral damage was immense…you three, excluding myself, were the only ones to make it off the island alive, the island was obliterated entirely during the fight," Ksaner continued. The last two remarks hit Gray hard, almost as if someone had just punched all the air out of him. Whatever strength he had managed to keep hold off before quickly vanished, as he sunk down in the bed, his head hanging dejectedly. "When I arrived, Deliora had just been awakened…it was pandemonium, absolute chaos. There were cultists running away, some simply dying from hearing the monster roar…they were massacred indiscriminately…it turned out that they were only innocent people wanting revenge because the monster destroyed their homes and ruined their lives when it rampaged in the north. They were misled by this, 'Lyon-person', blinded by the prospect of finally seeing an end to Deliora, but little did they know that it was already dead, and if anything they worsened the situation…I don't want to imagine what would've happen if I hadn't stopped it," he said, whilst keeping an eye on Gray who had now sunken even further down in the bed.

"But…if Happy's soul was transferred, it should still be around…right?" Erza said with an almost pleading look, which quickly directed back to Natsu who seemed to lighten for but a second.

"You're grasping for straws…I'm sad to say this, but he's dead. There's no coming back after what happened. You can only let go of it, or become stronger in order to live with it," Ksaner stated plainly, and from Erza's perspective, also callously.

She gave him a sharp look, clearly saying, 'how could you say that' or 'couldn't you just have lied'.

Ksaner just briefly shook his head in response to Erza, after which he turned his focus towards Lucy, who had been slowly fading into the background, not saying a word in fear of interrupting any of the others. Needless to say, the sudden attention she received caused her to flinch slightly, though she quickly managed to settle down again. "I managed to salvage this, if that is at least some form of reconciliation," he said after which he threw a golden zodiac key to Lucy, who barely managed to catch it after fumbling with it for a bit.

"T-than-," she started, though was interrupted by Ksaner making a gesture with a hand signaling for her to stop.

"Please, don't. Just…" he started though his voice trailed off. "Just, live…" he said to no one in particular. After he had said that, he turned around, opened the door, walked out of it and closed it behind himself.

As soon as he turned around after closing the door behind him, he noticed a quite short person standing in front of him, leaning against the opposite wall.

"How are they?" Makarov asked Ksaner, his concern clearly apparent in his voice.

"They…aren't good," he responded rather dryly. "They took it pretty hard, but that's only to be expected…anyway, it's probably for the best to wait for them to come out by themselves…Natsu is really shaken up about this, Gray is as well, at least more than what he is letting on."

"Gray too?" Makarov asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ksaner nodded. "Turns out that someone called Lyon was also there, and Gray knew him somehow, what their connection was I'm not quite sure, but I can guess that they met up north, but then something happened to them because of Deliora probably, though that's just me guessing."

"Lyon was Gray's master's other apprentice," Makarov said, answering Ksaner's speculation.

"Ah, I see. Anyhow, I'd best be going now, I don't know how much longer I can keep myself awake anymore," he said casually, starting to walk away.

Makarov smiled kindly. "Thank you," he said.

Ksaner stopped and turned his head and looked back at him. "It's the least I could do," he said briefly, before titling his head around again.

Makarov sighed contently, his focus now back to the closed door in front of him, oblivious to the sadistic smile that had briefly crossed Ksaner's face.

The seconds turned to minutes, and as the minutes turned to hours, the door finally opened and the four mentally worn out mages stepped out slowly, each stopping in front of Makarov who was waiting for them.

Lucy was the first to notice him. "Master," she said quickly, quite surprised by his sudden appearance. Gray only barely acknowledged Makarov's presence, phasing out of his daze shortly to nod at him, after which he submerged himself back into his thoughts. Natsu, the last to come out noticed his presence immediately, though he didn't smile at him like he would normally. The thought didn't even crossed his mind.

Makarov started talking to them all as soon as they had all come out of the room. "I know this is going to be a very difficult time for you all, but I want you to remember that you are always at home here, and that if you are ever in need of comfort, you can always come here, because we're family here…never forget that. I want you all to go home and rest...when you've regained your strength, come back here and we can talk about whatever you need to talk about. Just promise me you'll come back here, each of you," Makarov said in a soft tone, one Natsu had heard only once before. When Lisanna died. The memory brought back even more painful thoughts and feelings. It seemed as if this day was nothing more than an endless torrent of sorrow and grief, as if this day was solely designated to stab him in the back and pierce his heart continuously. His face yet again became convulsed in sorrow, and the tears started to flood again…though he still nodded, alongside the rest.

Makarov looked at Natsu with concern…when Lisanna had died, Natsu had taken a heavy blow, but that seemed almost incomparable to what he was going through now. It worried him greatly, and his inability to help him was driving him mad. Some wounds are best mended by time, and this was definitely one of them. They were also the most painful ones, regrettably. The only anesthesia that could relieve the pain was another shoulder to lean on for support.

"Lucy, could you let Natsu stay at your house?" Makarov asked her.

Lucy looked a little befuddled at him, although she quickly nodded and then shot a glance at Natsu, who was still being overwhelmed by a stream of tears that seemed to be never-ending. She had never seen him like that, and she had thought that he under any circumstance would keep his joyous personality, though that idea had quickly burst.

"Natsu, are you fine staying at Lucy's house?" Makarov asked.

Natsu nodded somberly, still looking down at the ground.

Makarov smiled solemnly. "I'll see you soon," he added, after he slowly strolled down the hallway towards the bar.

The four of them stood there for a couple of seconds before Erza started walking, and all of them just sort of followed along, not bothering to ask where they were going, nor go their own way. Natsu was rubbing his sore eyes, trying to remove all of the tears before they went outside, whilst Gray was too preoccupied to pay attention to anything outside of his own head, aside from the most basic of movement. 'Lyon is dead…but why did he lead those people? Why was he even there in the first place?' The thoughts kept circulating endlessly within the confines of his mind. Lucy, the person who was affected the least by all that had transpired, was feeling a deep, intense melancholy she'd never before experienced. She had been sad before, she had cried, she had been angry, furious even, but she had never felt so…empty before. Everything just seemed so sad to her, and she felt like the tears she should, or rather, needed to cry had already been shed, because she couldn't feel them at all, not after the initial wave when she was informed of what happened to Happy. It felt surreal to her, otherworldly. Erza, the current leader of the group, was too busy being concerned about the others to notice the stares from everyone in the guild as they passed through the main hall.

Those who sat close said their condolences, those who didn't, just nodded with sorrowful expressions towards them. The four of them might as well have carried Happy's coffin through the main-hall and it would not have changed the mood, not even in the slightest. With each step they took, they moved an inch closer to his grave, an inch closer to the last farewell.

* * *

><p>Author Notes; Another chapter draws to a close, and with that, Happy as well. Anyway, some minor news, I've two beta readers helping me improve the story, so the quality should be above the usual. As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and feel free to leave a review.<p>

Also, I'm trying to mix up the lengths of the chapters, where chapter with little to no major things happen, they will be short short, and the more important ones are going to be longer.

Thanks for reading and I stay tuned for the next chapter, where some things are going to happen.

(I chose to increase the rating from T to M, just to be safe since some of the scenes later on are probably not going to be T rated, and no, I'm not talking about depictions of sexual intercourse, or at least I don't think so)


	5. Night

Not long after leaving the guild, Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Erza found themselves in Lucy's room. Erza was sitting on the bed, Gray on the chair by her desk, Natsu and Lucy sat across from each other at the small wooden-table in the middle of her room. The silence had laid itself over them. The town's busy rumbling was strangulated by the firmly closed windows. It was suffocating them ever so slowly, until Erza spoke up.

"You really can't remember anything about what happened on that island…can you?" she asked. The words hung in the air, above Natsu, Lucy and Gray, looming ominously.

Gray was the first of them to answer. "I…remember Lyon. I don't know how, or why…all I know is that he was there…on that wretched island. Everything else is just blank, it's like someone blocked off everything that happened," Gray said. "The last thing I remember was…when Ksaner stopped at some rubble in Hargeon. Everything that happened after that is just…" He shook his head at the thought.

"I feel somewhat the same," Lucy said, looking at Gray.

"How so?" Erza asked.

"It's like…like a big hole, or a…a flight of stairs where the steps you took are missing, though you know they are supposed to be there because you walked on them, or something," she said, scratching the back of her head in bewilderment.

"I think I understand," Erza said, nodding to affirm her previous statement. "What about you, Natsu?" Erza asked in a quite soft, yet firm tone.

Natsu looked up, opened his mouth briefly, only to close it again shortly thereafter, after which he seemingly submerged himself thoughts. After a couple of seconds, he fixated his eyes on Erza and spoke. "It's really strange…I'm not entirely sure how I would describe it, but…it's like my brain is telling me that I never went to Galuna…I don't even remember why we went there in the first place," he tried to explain, but stopped in an attempt to find something less confusing to say.

Lucy looked at Natsu perplexed. "You don't remember how Happy woke us up and showed us the poster?" Lucy asked Natsu, leaning towards him.

Before Natsu could answer, Erza interjected. "So you're saying that it was Happy who come up with the idea?" she said, sounding slightly surprised.

Lucy nodded. "He came and woke us up, and then suggested that we went to Galuna…I don't actually remember why though…"

"Were you and Natsu sleeping together?" Gray inquired from the sidelines.

"No, it's just a misunderstanding, he's just got no sense of personal space," Lucy said frighteningly fast, brushing the question off as smoothly as she possibly could. Gray nodded in satisfaction, much to her relief.

"Never mind all that, I still don't understand why Happy would want to go to Galuna," Erza said, directing them back towards the original discussion. "It just doesn't make sense."

"Now that I think about it, yeah, it does sound pretty absurd for Happy to do something like that," Lucy replied, agreeing with Erza's sentiment.

"Great, another question, just what we needed," Gray said with a tired and sarcastic tone.

"That's not helping, Gray," Erza responded, her normal strict tone coming back, albeit only slightly.

"Yeah, but that whole island is a bloody question and I really don't know why we keep asking new questions when we can't even get any answers," Gray said angrily. "The only answers we got was from Ksaner, and I don't know about you, but I really don't trust him. He is hiding something from us, I know it," he continued in a more calm voice, though with clear undertones of anger.

"How could you say that about a member of our guild Gray?" Erza asked sharply.

Gray would have backed off at that point under normal circumstances, but something kept him going. "Just because he's in our guild doesn't mean we have to believe everything he says," he answered back, his irritation clear in his voice.

"Since when did you become so distrustful of Ksaner?" Erza asked, with a tone torn between anger and concern.

"Since when did you begin to trust him so much?" Gray retorted.

"I…why wouldn't I trust him, he was the one who saved you on Galuna!" she responded, her voice rising in frustration. She could understand his concerns, but they were blown out of proportion for no good reason. She didn't know why she trusted Ksaner herself, but it was probably because he confided in her. She really couldn't find a good reason to doubt him, and neither could Gray if you asked her.

"How do you know that what happened at Galuna wasn't his fault?"

"Gray, now you're just being unreasonable," she all but sighed. Erza sincerely wished that Gray would stop and let the argument end, because she wouldn't give in. He was only blaming Ksaner because he wouldn't accept what happened at Galuna. Even if he didn't remember, what happened was fact, and fact was that Happy was dead, Lyon was dead, everyone except the four of them on that island, were dead. It wasn't a painless thing to recognize, but refusing to accept it would hurt a lot more in the long run. The reason why Erza wasn't indulging him in her thoughts was because she knew he simply wouldn't listen to reason at this point. He was far too riled up, something that rarely happened, but nevertheless did still occur, however uncommon it might have been.

"I don't understand why you can't just see th-,"

"Stop it you two!" Lucy shrilled at them, interrupting Gray and Erza's argument, if you could call it that. Her face was red and her breath was heavy.

The room grew quiet, as they sat there. Eventually, Lucy managed to regain control of her respiration, and the room became significantly quieter. It was almost unsettling how quickly silence had grown fond of the little group. Lucy would never have imagined that it would become like this, under no circumstances. That was one of the first times that she realized, people aren't always the same. Maybe it had been because for so long, she had been living amidst the aristocracy, filled with masks and facades. They were always the same, even her father. Especially her father, but the people sitting in front of her were real. They didn't hide their emotions behind a thick layer of indifference, idiocy and arrogance. Even more reason for her to be upset by their strife, because their turmoil was her turmoil. They were everything she had left, they were precious to her, and that was why she couldn't stand the thought of ever losing them because of anger.

"I'm sorry…" Lucy said slowly, carefully.

"You don't have to be sorry Lucy. We just got a bit ahead of ourselves, right, Gray?" she said, with a look that really wasn't asking any questions.

He sighed and leant back in the chair. "I'm sorry for getting so aggressive," he said, obviously tired and exasperated. He, much like the rest, had no interest in prolonging the conflict.

After that, the room, once again, delved into silence, though this time it was more like a mutual understanding of each other. There was nothing to be said. At this point, any one of them could have proclaimed that time heals all wounds and left, and it would've been just as fulfilling as staying around, but of course they couldn't leave, not yet. Gray and Erza stayed around for another couple of hours, until the carts running from the docks had slowly stopped strolling by below the now opened window and the sky had grown just the faintest shade of red. There had been some idle, inconsequential conversation between the three of them, as Natsu had continued to sit with his head facing downwards. After a while, they had concluded that he was finding solace by hearing them talk, by being near them, albeit not participating. He was still sad, of course, and they accepted the fact that they were unable to accelerate his recovery. They still lingered for some hours in spite of its futility. It might be that they couldn't speed up his recovery, but they could at least make the journey towards his inevitable restoration as painless as possible. They didn't however want it to feel forced, which was why they left as early as they did. Under the normal circumstances, they would have stayed until far into the night, but they also had things to deal with. Erza wanted more answers from Ksaner, and Gray wanted to be alone.

It was, however only Gray that managed to get what he wanted. Erza searched for Ksaner, in the guild, in the streets, and eventually at the entrance to his house, or whatever one would call it. She found herself unable to enter and she wasn't sure whether it was because it was locked, or that it could only be opened by himself. She would probably have stayed outside the entrance of his home if it wasn't for the hunger that had slowly began to take her over. The tea she had made for herself at Lucy's did little to ward it off and now she found herself starving for food, and as such, she went back to the guild hall, ate, then proceeded to walk home, to Fairy Hills, taking a detour past Lucy's house, though decided not to enter.

Lucy and Natsu were for the most part silent. Natsu had spoken up briefly when his stomach had begun growling. He could feel his mood gradually shift as he partook in the dinner Lucy had managed to procure from whatever was left in her fridge that wasn't rotten. After filtering out anything that wasn't poisonous or growing fungus, all that was left was some dry, salted meat and stale bread. It wasn't exactly what one would classify as the most extravagant, or well tasting of dinners, but it sufficed. Mostly because Lucy didn't have the excess money to buy anything to replace, or even supplement it. As it stood, she barely had the money for that month's rent, and she was unsure of whether there was a job that could be completed in a short interval of time, or if she had to starve a couple of days. All of this was one of the few reasons she sometimes missed being with her father. She hadn't had to worry about any of this, it was just given to her without as much as a second thought, something she had not truly appreciated until recently. The problem was that there wasn't much she could do in her position, except borrow money, something she flat-out rejected doing. She'd left that behind, along with her father, and as such, she dug her teeth into the anything but tender meat. She didn't complain about it, most of all because she felt she didn't have the right to. She looked over at Natsu who was eating as quietly as he could for no particular reason. It was, luckily for Lucy, over quickly.

After the dinner was over and it had been cleaned up, with the help of Natsu, who had seemingly taken it upon himself to help her. It had baffled Lucy at first, but regained her senses quickly, as she remembered how all her preconceptions in regards to who exactly Natsu was and how he behaved, had all crumbled on this day of sadness and sorrow.

When everything had been taken care of, the two of them once again sat down at her table.

"So…how are you feeling now?" Lucy asked, carefully.

Natsu looked at her, and with a fragile smile, he said; "Better."

Lucy smiled back at him. Their eyes met for the first time that day, and Lucy could instantly see it. The void within his eyes, an empty hole longing to be filled by anything and everything, but there was nothing she could do. Except for one thing, a thought, that went as fast as it came. An idea that sent her head into disarray and confusion. She broke the contact between their eyes and looked out the window instead.

The night had slowly crept in on them and had now showed up in full force at twilight, covering the town's roofs in darkness, but was held away from the streets by the lit torches hanging on the walls. It was a constant battle. With every flicker of the flame, the shadows attacked and stormed forward only to be pushed back again. It was a never-ending cycle, that could only be halted when the sun arose and vanquished the dark, or if the torches succumbed to the encroaching blackness.

It was simply a matter of time.

Then the window closed and the curtains soon thereafter blocked the view of the light's struggle. Lucy glanced over at Natsu whom was already fast asleep on her bed. She smiled briefly. The thought she had purged from her mind earlier sprung back up, but was once again, beaten down. She walked over to the bed and crawled onto it, over Natsu, to the unoccupied side of the bed. It was a strange feeling for Lucy, sneaking into her own bed wasn't exactly something she did often, ever, even. She lied down and pulled the quilt over her, sighing contently while doing so. For a moment, she stared into the dark ceiling above her. Maybe the darkness had won there, but the war remained in the streets.

She closed her eyes and dreamt of herself, within the dawning sun as it rose on the horizon.

The bed was empty. Not exactly since Lucy was still resting in it, but because Natsu wasn't in it any longer. A few strange things popped into her head as she pushed herself up from her lying position. She hadn't been woken up by Natsu's moving about and she hadn't heard any snoring. She rubbed her eyes and looked around for him, but the room was empty. She got out of the bed and brushed the hair away from her face. While still not entirely conscious, she decided to go look in the kitchen for Natsu. Whilst walking there amidst her daze, she accidentally stubbed her little toe on the table, knocking over a couple of items. Lucy immediately flinched, took a step back from the table instinctively and kneeled down to look at it. After having thoroughly inspected her toenail with her fingers, she assessed that it was indeed not broken, but it still hurt like hell. She stood up again, and while still looking at her toe, she noticed a pen that had rolled off the table when she hit it. She bent down, picked it up, and laid it back on to the table, only to notice a single scrap of paper on the table, with a hastily written message on it.

'Want to be alone. Please dont look for me'

* * *

><p>Author Notes: Not a lot happened in this chapter, however I feel that it has enough value on its own to justify its independence. The next chapter will be the last part of this non-action oriented part of the story, but it won't be the last. It's also worth mentioning that part of the reason this chapter was so short was because I was correcting the first chapter.<p>

As always, I hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave some feedback as its always appreciated.


	6. Dawn

Lucy walked with desperate steps towards Fairy Tail. The short message Natsu had left terrified her. She feared he was going to do something drastic, which was why she had hastily searched the town for Natsu, and in her failure headed towards the guild to ask for assistance. She entered through the large wooden doors and quickly scanned the room. Gray was nowhere to be found, but Erza was there looking half-heartedly at the job-board. Upon seeing her, Lucy all but darted towards her, barely managing not to run.

"Have you seen Natsu?" Lucy asked, still catching her breath.

Erza turned towards her in mild surprise at her sudden outburst. "No, what happened?"

"I found this note when I woke up," Lucy withdrew the scrap of paper from her pocket and quickly unfolded it.

Erza took the note and inspected it thoroughly for no particular reason. After having done so, she looked back at Lucy who was waiting anxiously. "What about it?"

"Natsu wrote it," Lucy explained, as if that revelation would instantly make Erza see the gravity of the situation from her point of view.

"I know he wrote it, I just don't see what's so important about it."

"But…but who knows what he might do?" Lucy said frantically, desperately trying to make Erza understand.

Erza sighed subsequently and gave Lucy a disappointed look. "I know what you're thinking, but I'm sure that Natsu has enough common sense within himself to not do what you're suggesting that he'll doing. He just needs some time to think, we all do in these kind of situations, so just let him be for now."

Lucy looked at Erza with crestfallen dejection, but decided that there was little to no point arguing with her. Erza was probably right regardless, although she couldn't get rid of the lingering concern she had for Natsu's well-being. She shook her head. "Do you know if there's any quick jobs available?"

"All those available require traveling and the ones that don't have already been taken."

"Maybe there'll be some new ones tomorrow," Lucy assured herself before turning around and scouring the guild once again. Her eyes fell upon Levy, who as always was reading whilst surrounded by her two…bodyguards. Lucy could never really decide what to call them. Lucy turned towards Erza briefly. "Well…I'll talk to you later then," she said with a strained smile. She didn't wait for Erza to respond, heading for Levy as soon as she had seen herself off.

Erza yawned and wiped her eyes. She hadn't slept well that night. "What was that about?" she heard a voice say from beside her. She turned and found Mirajane approaching her slowly, with a bright smile gracing her face.

"It was just Lucy…she thought that Natsu was going to hurt himself," Erza answered, mocking the very notion.

Mirajane titled her head slightly sideways. "May I see that?" she said, gesturing towards the little scrap of paper in Erza's hand. She presumed it to be the cause of all the commotion from how Lucy had shoved it towards Erza in comical desperation.

"Sure," Erza said, holding it out towards her.

Mirajane took it and let her eyes run over the message twice. A subtle frown emerged. "He's running away, isn't he?"

Erza broke free of her tired stupor and looked at Mirajane with concerned confusion. "He's not running away?" she asked. Truthfully, she hadn't even given any thought to that possibility because she hadn't believed there was any.

"From his problems…He's running away from his problems," Mirajane explained.

Erza sighed with relief, even though the alternative wasn't great either. She nodded.

"It was like this back when Lisanna died as well…except worse maybe," Mirajane noted with an even subtler frown. She had considered Natsu an annoying little brother back then, but now she wasn't entirely sure what he was. It didn't really matter anymore, what did however was the fact that Natsu was in pain. Back when Lisanna had died, he at least had Happy to support himself with, just as Elfman and she had used each other to avoid falling down into places where there often is no return. Now he had no one, he was even pushing people away. The notion scared her. It terrified her.

At that moment, one of the large wooden doors slowly creaked open and a hooded head poked inside briefly and looked around the hall, only to disappear from whence it came, shutting the door along the way.

"What was that about?" Mirajane asked Erza, only to realize she was halfway across the room, heading towards the entrance. She smirked and returned to the counter of the bar and began cleaning whatever was left since she had left the night before. After she had finished, she looked around contentedly at the clean bar top, and then began perusing the guild like the joyous socialite she had turned in over the last couple of years.

Seven hours or so passed with random conversations with whomever was around. Mirajane had noticed three things, or rather, she hadn't. Natsu and Gray had not set a foot inside the guild the whole day, Ksaner had also stayed away after looking around that morning. It was somewhat strange to her, knowing that they were around and still not there. Their absence felt unnatural. Her bright smile slipped for a moment, replaced by somber concern that longed to go out and find them, Natsu primarily. She gazed towards the door with a feeling of never to be fulfilled anticipation. She sighed and shook her head. She took one last gander at the bar top and decided that it was clean as it would ever be, and headed out the door into the crowded streets.

She stopped and looked around for a moment. She knew where Natsu was. There was not a doubt in her mind as to where Natsu was. The question she needed to ask herself was if he wanted to be found. She made up her mind quickly and set out to her newly decided destination. On her way there, she reckoned that she had seen Gray somewhere in the mass of people; she had even waved but received no response. She had shrugged it off and continued onwards.

As soon as she reached her goal, the sad smile that she'd always worn when visiting emerged.

'Lisanna Strauss, X768-X782, Loved by many, taken far before her time.'

"A lot of things have been happening as of late...Happy died," she said, talking to the grave with earnest softness. "Natsu's taking it unbelievably hard…I don't even want to think about what's going on inside his head right now…It scares me to think of what he might do, even though I know he won't do anything. I just wish you could be there for him…he really needs you now more than ever," she said, looking up into the clear sky above her. "Maybe in some other world, you are still alive and well," she said with a reminiscent smile. She looked back down at the grave again and noticed a strip of parchment held down by a stone next to the grave. It was dirty and crumpled, but she could see there was something written upon it. She knelt down, moved the little stone and picked it up.

'If only you could have evaded death for but another year, everything would've been perfect. You should have been the first by my hands.'

She stared at the message and reveled in the thought that it meant something…It seemed to be written with an unstable hand under time pressure. It seemed somehow cataclysmically important, but it meant nothing to her. She sighed, put the strip back onto the ground and put the stone on top of it. That message wasn't meant for her, so it'd be best if it remained with Lisanna, beside the grave. Whatever it foreshadowed, whatever incomprehensible message was hidden behind the words meant little to her. "I'm going to go back to the guild and wait for Natsu…I'll be sure to tell you what happens. I love you Lisanna," she said, departing with the same forlorn smile she had when she approached.

For some inexplicable reason, she remembered the first moment she had ever heard Ksaner talk. It was two days after Lisanna had died, it was raining and Mirajane was alone, walking towards the exit of the graveyard when she saw him approach her in his usual attire. She stopped and watched him closely as he approached her. He'd stopped but a meter from her in the pouring rain.

"You have my deepest condolences," he spoke formally and clearly. She looked at him with stunned bafflement, which only amplified as he withdrew a black-umbrella from underneath his cloak and handed it to her. She stood with it in absolute confusion, looking at him inquisitively. He just nodded and moved past her, towards Lisanna's grave. She turned around and followed him with her eyes. He stopped at her grave and simply looked at it with a downcast head. She opened the umbrella and left the graveyard. The image of Ksaner, standing at Lisanna's grave, staring down at it amidst the heavy rain had burned itself into her memory. If it wasn't for the memento, she wouldn't have believed that it had ever happened. Incidentally, she had kept the umbrella and had used it rigorously whenever the clouds had laid themselves in ominous loom above Magnolia.

She came back into reality, only to see Ksaner pass by the church with hasty steps. The sun was reaching the mountains on the horizon. She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to follow him. She had always wanted to ask what his connection to Lisanna was, and now seemed as good a time as any other moment.

It wasn't long before she realized that she wasn't able to catch up to him with extraneous effort, so she at least kept pace with him, hoping that he would either stop or notice her soon. He didn't, and it was at that point that she realized where he was heading. She knew she should go back to the guild, but she wasn't sure whether or not she could resist the temptation of overhearing the inevitable confrontation.

"How did you find me?" Natsu asked Ksaner whom was silently walking towards him.

"You told me where you were," he explained nonchalantly.

Natsu turned his head and looked at him skeptically. "I didn't tell you anything," Natsu noted, furrowing his eyebrow.

Ksaner stopped in his tracks and took his hood off. His face was still ghostly pale and the red markings on his head were still clearly visible. His dark hair wavered slightly in the wind as he stood there, gazing down at Natsu. "I know you, Natsu. I understand you. That in and of itself is enough to tell me where you are, especially on a day like today."

Natsu turned back towards the two graves in front of him. His hands still hurt from digging. "What's so special about today?"

"Nothing, really…" Ksaner said, his gaze leaving Natsu and falling upon the sun that was just above the mountains in the distance. "Do you think the sun will rise tomorrow?" Ksaner asked cryptically.

"Of course it'll rise tomorrow, why bother asking?" Natsu responded, with slight hesitation.

"I've always wondered whether the sun would actually come back after it set…I constantly imagined myself in a world without light, a world where the sun only set and never rose…but no matter what happened it always rose again, no matter how much I believed that it wouldn't. It was quite funny, really. I feared the end of the day, because I dreaded the idea that if I didn't, the day wouldn't come back. It was as if my fear was quintessential to bringing back the sun. It's strange now that I look back at it. I always made sure that the sun would disappear behind the horizon, to make sure it actually ended and didn't end up in a state of existing nonexistence. After that, I would wait for the morning to come…sometimes I would even stay awake through the night until dawn just to make sure that it really did begin again once more. Strangely, I always found that the morning, the sunrise was not something I praised, nor upheld in awe. It was just a reassurance that everything was as it was supposed to be, and as such, I accepted the newborn light complacently and proceeded to wait for the night, only to dread it again," he said, tearing himself away from the sun to look at Natsu. "Do you understand?" he asked.

"No," Natsu said flatly.

Ksaner smiled briefly. "That's understandable; after all it is only your second night if I'm not mistaken."

Natsu turned his head and looked at Ksaner, perplexed. He knew that Ksaner was trying to tell him something, but he simply had no idea what it was. It mostly sounded like nonsense to him. Maybe he wasn't trying to tell him something after all, maybe that personal anecdote of his was nothing more than that, which then begged the question; "Why are you telling me this?"

Ksaner shrugged in response. "I don't have a reason if that's what you're looking for, or maybe I do…I'm sorry, the line becomes a little blurry at times," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"What line?" Natsu asked.

"The line between what's not a lie and what is."

Natsu stopped for a second to carefully study Ksaner's face. It was for the most part, if not entirely empty. Barren of emotions. "Do you lie?"

"Natsu, everyone lies, although I'm probably one of the main offenders, but before you condemn me, or anyone else, there's something you need to understand first," Ksaner said, pausing.

Natsu waited with fearless trepidation. He abhorred the thought of a long conversation. Truthfully, he longed for Ksaner to go away. Natsu hadn't chosen to disappear for the day to have this conversation. He wanted to disappear because he wanted to be alone. Away from everyone else, and away from their thoughtful wishes of his return to his former self. Natsu didn't want to turn back. He went and dug Happy's grave not out of ceremony, nor because he felt compelled to do so. Natsu did it because he wanted to be able to feel sad and nothing else. Those two graves were everything to him. They were his sadness, his grief, his longing, his entire world was encompassed within those two graves as he sat there in front of them, and Ksaner was in neither of them.

If anything, he was the one who laid the foundation for one of them, and as such he was not welcome and yet he was. Natsu realized in that moment, looking at Ksaner's apathetic face, that he was the most welcome person there, out of anyone. They all wanted him to feel better, but Ksaner didn't. He was different. Maybe it was because he simply didn't care, Natsu wasn't sure, but he could feel it. It made him comfortable that someone accepted his sadness, instead of shooing it away. He had felt it the night before, how the sadness that had come to fill so much of him the last couple of days was unwanted. They all wanted it gone, Erza, Gray, Lucy, even Makarov, especially Makarov, but that was completely understandable. They didn't want him to feel pain which was reasonable, but Natsu did. He wanted to feel the pain that made him sad, and he wanted that to be accepted, but they wouldn't understand, he was sure of it. That was why he had lied to Lucy the night before. He wasn't better. He was the same. He wanted to be the same. He longed for the pain that accompanied Happy's death, for without it, the world would seem so bleak and depressing, even more so than it was already. For a brief second, Natsu wondered if Ksaner felt the same as himself, because that would explain why he felt at ease around him.

"Lies are not in of themselves bad," Ksaner said with overwhelming decadence, something Natsu would not have expected to come from him. "They are what sweetens the harsh truth of reality and keeps the world turning around. Let's just say for example that the truth is that Happy is dead, and the lie is that Happy is alive. Which hurts the most?"

He turned his head back towards the wooden cross, away from Ksaner's apathetic face. "Isn't that kind of obvious?" he asked, exasperatedly.

"Then, if I under hypothetical circumstances was the one who killed Happy, and I said I didn't, wouldn't that lie make your life much easier than the alternative?"

There was a short silence.

"Did you kill Happy?" Natsu asked. Just saying those words made him feel tight around his chest.

The words hung in the air.

"I didn't."

"Then I don't think I understand," Natsu said, growing slightly more confused.

Ksaner sighed heavily and looked around the surrounding area. There was a little, withered hut near the edge of the grass, bordering the thick forest. It looked ready to fall apart and crumble underneath the overwhelming strength of time. "Imagine this then," Ksaner began, walking in between the two small, empty graves and Natsu. He looked over Natsu's head for a second, in which a grin emerged and submerged. He looked back at Natsu. "Wouldn't it be a lot kinder of me to pretend to show emotions, feelings and the like, and not what I'm really feeling?"

"What are you really feeling?"

"Nothing."

"But how do you feel nothing?"

"You don't."

"That doesn't make sense."

"But it does, it most certainly does. When you feel nothing, you feel the lack of something, an absence, so to speak. You are aware of this absence, but there's nothing you can do about it, since everything that was supposed to replace that absence has already been swallowed up by it…now that I think about it, maybe it doesn't make sense after all…but I know that to feel nothing isn't the same as being emotionless. I do in fact register fear, pain, terror, happiness, everything that life encompasses, but it never goes beyond that. It's just an observation through a telescope, it's so distant to me that it doesn't affect me. Would you be able to hear someone scream of joy far to the west, or cry for help far to the east?"

"You could have really good hearing," Natsu noted with slight skepticism and bemusement.

"Natsu, that's not the point," Ksaner responded, frustrated.

"But if you don't feel anything, why do you sound so frustrated?"

"It's mimesis. I mimic what I see through the telescope, in order to communicate better with the likes of you. If I didn't, well, you saw how questioning Gray became yesterday when the mask slipped, where I wanted to tell you something, and not that other person who is nothing more than a pretender…although I guess he could also be the real me, I'm not entirely sure. All I'm aware of is that I want to be the real me, and have the other one disappear, but his usefulness is not something to be taken lightly…do you remember the tears I shed? Those were his. Do you remember my sadness, my frustration, my everything? That was all his doing, his puppeteering of this otherwise empty vessel."

"But then who are you?"

"I'm searching for that answer myself, though I always find that pursuit impossible since it's overshadowed by other, more important matters…but it's safe to say that I'm myself right now, so that could answer your question…if you understand, that is."

Natsu was silent, breathless.

The wind ran across the open field, graced the trees with its gentle caress and brought the otherwise dead straws of wheat to life. The sun was nearing the mountains in the distance. It was red, just like it had been the day before. Natsu wondered if it would be the last time he saw that sun. Maybe it would disappear and be replaced by another…he shook off the thought. It didn't make sense, any of it.

"I think I understand."

Ksaner smirked and that irritated Natsu. "See? You are already beginning to understand already. All you have to do now is make the lie believable."

"I wasn't lying."

"Oh but you were, maybe not to me, but to yourself," Ksaner said with a smirk.

"How do you know that?" Natsu scoffed at him.

"Natsu, do you understand what I just told you about lies?"

"Yes."

"Truthfully?"

Natsu sighed, tired and worn-out. "No."

"And that's the lie. You do understand, maybe you're not aware of it, but you do."

"And so what? What's the point in all this?" Natsu asked angrily as he stood up and faced him.

"I'm trying to tell you something, that's all," Ksaner said, carefully, calmly.

"And what is that then!?" he all but roared at him.

"It's that I understand you, even if you don't fully understand yourself," he said, with the slightest of smiles gracing his otherwise phlegmatic face.

Natsu calmed down, but couldn't stop looking at Ksaner with derision. "How am I supposed to trust that, or anything else you say for that matter?"

"Trust means nothing Natsu, all that really matters is whether or not you will what I say to be true. I could have told you about my imperceptible fear of tomorrow or the darkness of reality, and they would all have been true as long as you willed them to be. I could have said anything, and as long as you accepted it, it would have been true, maybe not to me but to you."

"So you trust no one then?"

"No, I trust plenty of people."

"But you just said that trust means nothing?"

"And it doesn't, but that doesn't stop me from having it. Do you trust that the sun will rise tomorrow?" Ksaner asked, to which Natsu nodded promptly. "And if you didn't, do you think it wouldn't rise?"

Natsu shook his head. Maybe that personal anecdote of his really had meant something, Natsu suddenly thought with confined bemusement.

"That just goes to show that trust is worthless, simple as that."

Natsu wanted to object. Nothing was stopping him, except for his own doubt. He was afraid that his argument would be broken and shredded to bits by Ksaner's ostentatious reasoning. With that sentiment in mind, he stayed silent and waited like an animal that knew it was being hunted. It was simply a matter of time before Ksaner would begin once more, but Natsu was ready to be defeated by his words, and as such, he waited. Ksaner moved out of his view, and returned to his side where he would gaze at the sun, along with Natsu. His presence was looming dangerously above Natsu, who was ready for the assault to commence, but it never came. He would look at Ksaner, and Ksaner would look at him in what seemed to be amused contemplation. Then he would look back at the sun, only to find himself too distracted to focus and begun searching for anything in front of him to absorb his attention, but to no avail. With an inaudible sigh, he resigned himself to whatever cruel fate was before him. "So…what now?"

Ksaner looked at him, almost confused. He shrugged. "I don't know what comes next. I normally don't get this far," he said with some form of mysterious contentment.

Natsu wasn't entirely sure whether or not Ksaner had cleared his mind or just further obfuscated it. Natsu sighed with resignation and gave up on him. They stayed there, Natsu still on the ground and Ksaner standing just out of his peripheral vision, as the gentle breeze slowly and consistently rolled over them from the East, coming from the ocean that was without a doubt barraging the land with its refreshing rumbling. It wasn't long before the sun cast its last rays over them, as they both stood there, admiring the scenery Natsu had witnessed countless times already. He had a habit of watching the sunset, but for some reason abstained from the sunrise, at least as far as he could remember. He wondered why.

"I think it's about time for dawn to break," Ksaner said loudly and clearly as the sun disappeared completely behind the mountains in the distance.

"What are you talking abou-," Natsu started, but was interrupted.

"Nullzone: Enclose," Ksaner said, seemingly out of nowhere.

Natsu immediately jumped to his feet, looking back at him with great confusion. Behind him, a little black box had appeared out of nowhere. He looked up at Ksaner and saw how every mark that ran across his face were illuminating his face in a dark-red color. "What are you doing?" Natsu asked hurriedly.

Ksaner looked at him with an absolute benevolence that was foreign to his apathy. "Nullzone: Restore," he said, slowly.

The black box vanished and upon a mound of rubble, stained by the red splatter of dried blood, laid the lifeless body of Happy. His face was serene, encapsulated forever in what was a strained relaxation that seemed somehow unnatural upon his otherwise energetic face. Natsu's head emptied of all thoughts in an instant. He could feel himself quiver underneath the terrible burden of truth staring directly at him. His jaw was shaking and his eyelids were pumping up and down ferociously in a ceaseless struggle to remove all the tears that were inevitably going to clog his vision. He fell on his knees beside the little mound, gazing down upon the corpse of his best friend. "H-…Happy?" he said breathlessly in fearful trepidation. There was no response, but the breeze as it slowly and incessantly crept over him with its silent but shrilling wind. Natsu bit his lip softly, trying to hold it in, while he moved his hands closer to Happy, but feared touching him, dreading the possibility of destroying something so peaceful and pure. He shut his eyes. He didn't want the happy memories he had to be broken by this destructive force that laid in front of him, stiller than the deep-blue ocean on a windless night. It was building up behind his eyes, like a tidal wave, and akin to a dam bursting; he opened his eyes and accepted what was before him. Natsu's fragile mind broke one last, final time and he wailed in the rain that wasn't falling from the clouds that weren't forming, to the gods that weren't listening.

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><p>Reviews are always appreciated.<p> 


	7. Clouded

Natsu strode towards Fairy Tail with long and quick steps. He felt like the thick layer of sadness that had laid itself over him had somehow washed itself off during the night after he had buried Happy beside Lisanna's empty grave. His worries and deliberations hadn't vanished, but he felt somehow lighter nevertheless. He felt ready to look forward, and that he did. Natsu wanted to become stronger, strong enough to prevent someone else he cared for from dying. He had found resolve, and with it, a goal to distract or maybe even prevent the pain that was hiding just around the corner, waiting anxiously for another tragedy to occur.

He was prepared. He was ready for the dawn to come and the new day to begin, and with those uplifting thoughts in mind, he turned a corner and Fairy Tail emerged before him. He stopped immediately, alongside his heart for but a second. Natsu stared with aghast confusion, unable to fathom what was before him. Slowly and surreptitiously, a fury like no other crept over him and overtook him. He felt as if the world was laughing at him, mocking him as he ran towards his guild and beheld its entirety. Large, iron pillars had destroyed what he called his home. The building looked ready to crumble underneath the immense weight of the pillars, but it held out, standing as strong as it could in its malformed state.

"Who did this?!" he said in a voice so twisted and corrupt with burning hatred and scornful disgust that he barely even recognized it was his own. He wanted to roar, to scream with the boundless anger that was erupting within him, but a thought emerged within all the raging chaos that was his mind. A thought that he found so grim, he couldn't help but divert his attention away from the shattered guildhall to look for any indication of life within or outside of the guild. His frantic search bore fruit, as he noticed the large wooden-hatch that lead down to the basement standing wide open. It wasn't long before Natsu was running down the steps, with a frightful expression planted on his panicked face. His mind was still ablaze with all the cataclysmic scenarios he could imagine when he nothing but slammed open the creaky door and entered the damp air of the cellar.

Everything, even time itself stopped as he entered the room and looked around. Everyone who had been socializing had been abruptly interrupted by Natsu's entrance. They were all staring at him with surprise mixed with a weary understanding. Upon seeing Makarov sit on a table at the other end of the cellar, Natsu's worries faded and he swept across the room, dragging the focus of everyone in the room along with a looming sense of anticipation. Makarov took a sip of his drink and sighed preemptively as Natsu planted himself in front of him with an anger that didn't suit his face.

"Who did this?" Natsu asked with a trembling voice, lingering on the edge between anger and forced composure.

"It was most likely Phantom Lord," Makarov answered with a shrug. He knew very well how his portrayed carelessness would direct his anger towards him, and as he figured, he saw how Natsu's brows furrowed even more than what was already the case.

"How can you say that so casually? They destroyed our guild!" he all but roared with a seething rage that could be felt throughout the room.

"They destroyed an empty building and nothing else. We will not fall for such wanton provocation and play by their rules," Makarov said, standing up.

Natsu didn't know how to respond to that, which made him angry, but also made him realize how pointless his anger was, which in turn made him even angrier. He looked around in bewilderment, as if to find some perfect solution to his predicament, but found nothing except a door closing.

Gray walked up the stairs and emerged from the depth of the cellar with a sigh of relief. It had felt nauseatingly strangulating down there, surrounded by all those people who knew he existed. He felt himself grow angry with them for no particular reason. There were many things of uncertain nature happening inside of him. He'd only experienced a very immediate sadness upon hearing the news of Lyon's death, but after that it had slowly twisted and turned inside his head. His inner cynic had reasoned that Lyon's demise had been his own mistake and that thought had derailed everything. He had decided to listen to his cynic, but that didn't remove any of the anger inside of him. It had slowly welled up and eventually it became too much to contain. It was as if he couldn't look at something without finding reasons to hate it, even if the reason he created was entirely unwarranted. He'd grown to dislike his guild because they didn't pay attention to him and his issues, which in return made him draw away from them, isolating him even further making him dislike them even more. He'd even realize the paradoxical nature of his annoyance, though that did nothing but spawn a self-hatred that would only grow as he came to realize how unfounded all of his hatred was. It was almost frightening, even to himself, how much his mental state had deteriorated over the last couple of days, and he hated how helpless he felt as it kept piling up from sources unknown.

Even as he walked through the streets, he couldn't help the scorn he felt towards the people, the ones unaware of his suffering which he would never had thought to share with them. They disgusted him, and he was disgusted of himself for being disgusted at them. He wanted to roar and run away from everything, to a place where he could hate nothing, but such a place didn't exist and even if it did, he would probably hate it because there was nothing there to hate.

He broke free from the street, entered a house and walked up a flight of creaking stairs, unlocked a door and walked into his two-room apartment overlooking the western-park of Magnolia. The room was for the most part empty, except for an unkempt-bed, a closet, an unpowered fridge and a stove that had gathered a thick layer of dust. The door on his left which led to the bathroom was half-open, and through it he could see the newly broken mirror hanging ever so tauntingly on the wall, looking back at him with a shattered reflection of what he presumed was himself.

He broke of the contact as he walked across the dull room to the window overlooking the lush trees that he'd grown to dislike because they were blocking his view of the mountains and the sunset. He stuck his hands into his pocket and withdrew a set of matches and a carton of cigarettes. He'd managed to stop smoking, mostly fueled by a desire to end Erza's constant barrage of 'good advice'. He opened the carton, withdrew a cigarette, which he studied carefully after which he planted it in his mouth after some deliberation. He struck a match and lit the cigarette. He inhaled once and then discarded it vehemently, promising himself that he'd never smoke again. Five minutes later, he had lit another one and was smoking it with a confusing self-disgust that he was trying to ignore with his entire being.

He didn't hate his guild, nor anyone in it.

In fact, he liked them immensely. They were his family, and yet the feelings of anger could not be quelled by that fact. It was like a rampant wildfire that had spread through his mind from foreign countries, burning the lands he found sacred. He wanted to stop it. He wanted the fire to go away so he could once again commune with his friends, but he couldn't do anything.

He sighed, accidentally letting the cigarette fall from his mouth, down into the street below. He followed its fall and was relieved when it landed on the street below. He opened the carton again and just stared into it. He felt no desire to smoke, nor had he felt the need when he had bought the pack that morning. It was just there, and he had bought it. It had been the only reason he'd gone anywhere near the guild in the first place. There were already rumors about its destruction circulating around him as he'd emerged from his unruly slumber.

Upon finding the guild in its sad state, he had felt as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders, as his rage directed itself towards whoever had destroyed the building. He wanted vengeance, that much was a given, but he wasn't permitted to exact his revenge, nor was anyone else. To a certain extent, he understood it, but he still didn't like the idea of just letting them get away with it, especially considering how insufficient the cellar turned out to be as a main-hall. It was cramped, especially since everyone was present, standing around doing nothing as if his or her mere presence would vindicate the destroyed guild. The only thing it did was make the room more cramped than it already was and as such he left the guild partially because he didn't want his…or whoever it was' hatred to corrupt his relationships and he needed to get some fresh air. He couldn't overlook the blatant irony he was partaking in, as he inhaled the smoke from the cigarette once more.

He stood there, gazing out at the tree, smoking his cigarette, and when he eventually finished it, he threw it down onto the ground when he was sure it wouldn't hit anyone. He turned around and looked over his room. It almost looked like a prison cell, completely void of any and all personality. He frowned. He'd tried to find things to fill his room, but it was an impossible task. He scarcely used the room at all, and when he did use it, it was only to wash himself or sleep. If he wasn't eating at the guild, he would buy something from one of the many street vendors that were scattered throughout Magnolia. He had the money for it since he only used any money on few occasions and his rent was quite low compared to that of Lucy, which would explain the quality difference. Gray didn't mind, but for some reason he was left with a feeling of emptiness as he stared at his utilitarian apartment. He didn't like that emotion, which was why he'd spent the entire day before wandering the streets mindlessly, though made a conscious effort to keep some distance from the guild. He'd seen Mirajane wave at him, though he had quickly walked away under the guise of not having seen her.

He sighed. He wasn't angry anymore…the hatred had vanished ever so slowly, but nothing had replaced it. He haphazardly threw the set of matches and the carton onto the bed and headed for the door. He wanted to get away from the room and the melancholic solace that accompanied it. Gray exited the apartment, but cared not to lock it. He stepped out into the midday sun, over the many cigarette buds that had fallen from his window and looked around. The town was progressing as it usually did with the street vendors attempting to push their wares on whomever was unfortunate enough to be in their near vicinity. They didn't even seem human as they ignored failure and continued onward, even though most secretly wished that they would pack up and disappear from whence they came. Gray wasn't one to share such a sentiment, however he found the thought of a quiet street exceedingly alluring as he walked through the crowded streets towards the outskirts of the city.

When he reached the place where the houses ended and the green fields with countless tree-stumps began, he stopped and looked at the border between the rural buildings and the desecrated thicket. It felt hollow. He calmly fled from the man-made clearing, walking along a dirt road that cut straight through the forest. After having walked a fair while, there was a branching path leading into the forest on his left.

He turned and followed it deeper into the forest that was progressively growing denser and darker as he moved further in. Time itself became obscure as the sky was blocked by a thick layer of leaves and branches above him, the only thing reminding him of its passage was the birds that would occasionally chirp and then return to silence.

He felt himself become absorbed by the tranquil serenity of the forest, so much so he wondered whether he was dreaming or not. His mind was perfectly empty, at peace from all the senseless hatred that had occupied him and hidden from the provoking hollowness of his room. As each step was replaced by another, it would slowly sink into a blurred reminiscence of its existence. It was like standing atop a flight of stairs without any steps, without a care to wonder where they had gone. In that moment, the past meant nothing to him and for all he cared, the future could go to hell. Sadly, even though he rejected the notion of time and its ways, it did nothing to hinder the sun from descending from its peak above him and slowly fall towards the horizon.

The forest grew darker, and his serenity slipped as the thoughts started to flood back into him as he became aware of his surroundings, as well as himself. He looked around to find a vantage point and saw the earth incline a little way away. He decided to head towards what he presumed was a hill, though as he ascended the slope, he could see the abrupt end of the trees in front of him. As he reached the top, he stood in awe at the view that had unfolded in front of him. Standing atop a steep cliff, he was staring out over the calm sea and could see the faint moon slowly rise on the cloudless horizon, as the gentle sea breeze greeted him with a break from the forest air's monotony. Breaking away from the scenery, he looked around and to his left; he could see the lights of Magnolia harbor protruding out of the landscape not all too far from him.

With a resigned sigh, he began walking towards Magnolia. He'd managed to walk in a half-circle around the city, ending up at the coast just south of the town. If someone had given him a choice, he would've instantly decided to continue walking in endless circles around the city, reveling in a blissfully doubtless, thoughtless absorption in a moment that would last for eternity. Alas, it was but a dream just as faint as the chance of the sun not rising.

He reached Magnolia shortly after twilight and immediately headed towards his home and return to a slumber hopefully more calm than the night prior. As he walked through the city, he noticed Levy, Jet and Droy not far in front of him, walking at a much more leisurely pace than his own. Not wanting to take the chance of having a conversation with them, he diverged from his original path down an alleyway, void of people. The torches were scarce, most of them had burnt out or simply not been lit, those which still burnt cast long shadows on the walls. He felt as if he was being watched, and surely enough as he was about to walk back unto one of the larger roads, he heard a self-indulgent voice behind him.

"Sup' Fairy freak," the voice said with joyous scorn.

Gray turned around to confront whomever was behind him but as he did so, everything turned black.

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><p>Reviews are always appreciated.<p> 


	8. Welcome

Gajeel looked at his handy work with great satisfaction. It had been quite a while since he had the opportunity to blow off some steam to such an extent, so he was quite thankful that the one he'd chosen had been such a pushover. Grinning with great content, he turned around and began walking out of the park. As he neared the exit he noticed a familiar hooded-man at the gate leading to the street. He stopped immediately and watched him with great care. He felt neigh paralyzed as the man began walking towards him with torturously slow steps.

"So the rumors were true…you really did join their shit guild," Gajeel said hesitantly when the man he knew as Vile had come reasonably close to him.

"You should know by now that I don't owe anyone allegiance," he replied with amusement. "You really did a number on Gray, didn't you?" he asked, looking over at Gray's unconscious body that was hanging from a tree in plain sight. He looked beaten and battered, and from what Vile could see, one of his legs was turning the wrong way.

Gajeel looked back at his victim with a self-indulgent smile upon his face. "It was almost as if he was begging to be beaten, being so weak and all," he noted with venomous glee. "He didn't even fight back."

"Did you give him a chance to?" Vile asked.

"No, and why would I? Besides, it's not like you care about him anyway, knowing you, you probably watched me kick the shit out of him and you did nothing to prevent it."

"You're probably right, maybe I did do that, though what I did or did not do should not be your primary concern at this point. I'm certain that notice about Gray's situation has already been sent to the other members of the guild at this moment, leaving you in the middle of the rat's nest with no way out."

"Nothing's going to happen to me, at least not now."

"How are you so sure of that?"

"Because you're talking to me. It'd be real bad if they found you talking to their enemy and even worse if they found out that we've known each other for a long time."

"Are you trying to blackmail me?"

"Yes," Gajeel said, grinning defiantly.

"How are you so sure that I won't just leave you?"

"Because someone in that crowd must have seen us talking," he said, gesturing towards the people walking by on the street just outside the park.

"Which is based solely upon the assumption that they can actually see me."

"But they can."

"You shouldn't be so sure about that," he responded.

There was a short-lived silence between the two.

"So, why aren't you leaving?" Gajeel asked questioningly.

"Because I'm intending to make you vanish."

"If you were planning to do that from the beginning, why did we have to go through all of that?" Gajeel asked with a sigh.

"It's because I needed you to understand that I'm doing this out of my own volition and not because you have some flimsy idea that you could actually force me to do something."

"Yeah yeah, you and your volition, intent or whatever the fuck you wish to call it…I'm getting tired of this shit, so just get me out of here so I can be done with it."

"You should be more careful Gajeel. There's more than one way to make people disappear," Vile said coldly. Gajeel recalled a rather unpleasant memory that he'd preferred be purged from his mind. "Just because you became stronger since we last met does not mean that I became weaker."

Gajeel wasn't normally one to be threatened but when he was, he would usually confront them in the most violent way possible, but he made a few exceptions, most of which involved the man standing in front of him. His thoughts lingered in the clear memory that had much to his dismay imprinted itself onto his mind. It had been years since it happened, before Phantom Lord.

He had been walking around the country in a blind search for his 'father', Metalicana, the iron dragon. He had been searching for almost a month before he entered a city for the first time. Unfortunately for him, he'd entered the city's slums and begun asking people if they knew of his long-gone father. His prospects of success were looking quite grim, but once he'd asked for quite a while, he was approached by a man who promised to help find his father, provided Gajeel followed him to ask his master personally. Of course, blinded by childish ignorance he obliged and followed the man into the deeper and filthier parts of the slums where the roads weren't even laid with bricks, but with a thick layer of mud and the shanties looked just about ready to crumble.

It wasn't long before he grew worried as to where the man was taking him, but after having voiced his concerns, the man had quickly explained that his master was a good man, who lived amongst the poorest because he was the most humble of humans. Gajeel had trusted the man for reasons he could not explain, and yet there was still a seed of discontent in the back of his mind, wishing for him to run away. He didn't, though.

It wasn't long before they reached a somewhat large tent amidst the seemingly endless sea of shanties and poorly crafted shacks.

"Wait out here," the man told Gajeel as he stepped inside the tent briefly, only to emerge seconds later. "You can come in now," he said with a smile, holding the entrance to the tent open for him. Gajeel stepped inside, with a growing sense of discomfort. Inside the tent, there was a small, but expertly carven wooden desk, behind which sat a man with a smug-smile on his face. He was, by no means, humble in appearance as he sat there looking at him with a royal benevolence and supremacy that made Gajeel sick to his stomach. His fat fingers were adorned with rings of gold, and his lavish robe was woven with silver thread.

"Well well, who is this you've brought me?" he asked, standing up from his chair and walking around the table to look at him better.

"This one was looking for 'is father," the man explained.

"His father you say," he exclaimed in vehement surprise, which Gajeel doubted was real. "Well, who might your father be, little one?"

He wanted to stay quiet and not say a thing, but the hands on his shoulders clenched even tighter as the silence continued. He was sincerely regretting having gone with the man. "Metalicana," he muttered beneath his breath. The grasp tightened even more. It was beginning to hurt. He wanted to leave.

"Excuse me, could you please repeat that?" he said, leaning in closer.

"I said his name is Metalicana," Gajeel said loudly and tried to shake himself loose of the hand that was firmly gripping the back of his neck. It remained.

"Metalicana...I'm afraid I've not heard of such a strange name around these parts, boy. Do you perchance remember your father's profession?"

"He's a dragon."

He laughed, much to Gajeel's annoyance. "A dragon you say! Well, that's a new one," he said, composing himself. He turned around and walked back to his desk and with a dismissing gesture of his hand, he said with a newfound phlegmatic malevolence; "Throw him into the cages with the rest of those bloody guttersnipes...no, actually, clear out the one of the pits instead and throw him in there. This one gives me a bad feeling."

The grip around his neck tightened significantly and he was pushed towards the back of the tent. Gajeel was done with the whole situation and resolved to the only apparent option. He carnalized what magic he could feel into his fist and saw with self-satisfaction how it slowly and surely morphed into metal. That satisfaction was nothing compared to the feeling of swinging his arm and having it land directly into the man's face. He yelped in pain as he let go of Gajeel who quickly took a step away from him, though was careful not to go too close to the fat man with the fancy clothes whose attention had now directed itself back towards him.

"Would you look at that…he's a mage! It's been quite a while since we had one of those, hasn't it?"

"Shut the fuck up!" the other man shouted back at him, trying to fix his nose that had been broken. Blood was trailing down his face.

Gajeel, now free from the grip, began edging towards the exit while making sure to keep a close eye on the two of them. It proved quite troublesome considering one of the two was behind him.

"Listen kid, you have a decision to make now. Either you choose to comply, or we will force you to, simple as that really."

"You can't force me to do anything."

The man seemed almost surprised by his statement, emitting a short chuckle. "No matter how many times I hear that, it never seizes to amaze me," he said with a content sigh. "Now that I think about it, I reckon every brat with the slightest speck of magic has said the exact same thing…curious thing, isn't it?"

"Clam it, he's getting away," he muttered through his hand that was still covering his nose…he hated this part. Granted, any part that didn't involve or lead to the involvement of the local whorehouse was to him a living nightmare which rightfully should end as soon as it possibly could. The thing was, his affection for the brothel didn't prevent him from hating some situations more than others, and as such he found himself deeply regretting his decision to work for the fat, ostentatious slob that only ever got around to doing anything until it was nearly too late. What angered him the most was he always succeeded. If he had to hear the words, 'you say', one more time, he was going to inflict some serious damage on an innocent fence that couldn't 'suspend' his pay. He felt nothing but contempt for mages, especially the mage that was currently using his undeserved magic to strangulate a child without even batting an eye. It was despicable, and he could do nothing to stop him, not that he actually wanted to do so, since the kid was a mage as well. That fact at least soothed his mind.

Gajeel was clawing at a collar that had materialized around his neck that was now ever so slowly becoming tighter, almost as if it was squeezing the life out of him. He was desperately trying to tear it off him, though it became increasingly difficult as he saw his vision blur and his head become light-headed. It was to no avail regardless, since every time he tried to grab hold of it, his fingers slipped right through it and he ended up scratching his already strained throat. It wasn't long before he finally gave up. He slumped down, struggling for air in a quiet, pathetic wheezing.

"See?" The collar loosened. "I can make you do exactly what I want you to do, that is, if you don't want to die of course."

Gajeel gasped for air as it flooded into his lungs.

"Do you want to die?"

Gajeel, after having finally recuperated and regained control over his respiratory systems, shook his head slowly and hesitantly.

"Good! Excellent even. Now, if you would be so kind as to follow Magnis, that would be great," he said, motioning towards Magnis, who at this point had 'fixed' his nose and wiped the blood off on his sleeve. He grunted with dejection as he stared at his bloodied sleeve. He knew from experience that blood was hard to get off one's clothes.

With an exasperated expression engraved into his face, he grabbed hold of Gajeel's arm and dragged him to an exit at the back of the tent, through which they entered a sizeable, albeit worn-out shanty. Their entry elicited a low murmur from the many guttersnipes whom inhabited quite a few large iron cages on each side of the room that was split down the half by three holes barred with wood. Gajeel counted three cages on either side of the room, though the number of kids in each seemed to vary, he figured it'd be somewhere between seven to nine. Per cage.

They were all illuminated by two wavering torches that were standing perpendicular in their own respective aisles. In spite of that, the room seemed to be submerged in eternal shadows, mostly because of the darkened wood that had been used to construct the walls along with the ceiling, the dark-iron bars of the cages and the kids who, with certain degrees of filthiness and withered clothes, seemed almost natural in the shady room. The rain pattered violently and the wood creaked beneath their feet as Magnis dragged Gajeel over to one of the cages.

Magnis let go off his shoulder and Gajeel considered bolting, but it seemed as if the mere thought of running brought along a tightening in the collar. As a result, he stood still and watched Magnis snatch a bundle of keys out of his pocket, fiddled with them, found the right one, yelled at the kids to back off and unlocked the cage, after which he promptly pushed Gajeel into the cage.

He half-tumbled into the cage, for some reason unprepared for the sudden push. The cage was locked even before he managed to turn around to look at his captor. Magnis had already at this point moved on, going over to a crate, and that was when Gajeel simply stopped caring about what he did. He sat down in the somewhat cramped cage and sighed. He looked around at the other unfortunate children. On every face he could see, bar one, was dejection, fatigue and hopelessness. The one that defied this pattern sat in the corner by himself, slowly rocking back and forth with his legs hugged against his chest. He didn't look very old to Gajeel, he was probably a few years younger than him, conjectured from his size alone. He seemed to be lost in a world of his own, as he sat there, gazing at the empty wall, though it wasn't long before the kid eventually noticed Gajeel's gaze and returned it. Gajeel looked away in response, but regardless of that, the kid stood up and walked over to him. Some of the others groaned.

"My Papa will come for me," the kid said with a burning sincerity Gajeel had never seen before. "Papa will definitely come," he continued, looking down at Gajeel with a self-reassuring smile. It was almost as if the boy held the fact that he would be rescued by his 'Papa' over everyone else, as if it put him on a pedestal above the rest.

"Don't let yourself be bothered by that one, he's a bit bonkers. He's been here for five days and after the first two days, he begins to think that his father will come for him…must be nice to be so delusional," Magnis noted offhandedly whilst tying a robe to a hook, just over one of the pits.

The kid heard none of this, as he'd already returned to his former position in the corner, wholly absorbed in whatever was going on inside of his mind. The others looked at him spitefully, yet stayed quiet about the whole ordeal. They had gone used to it over the last couple of days, most of them anyway.

Gajeel didn't say anything either, not that he could because the collar prohibited from doing so. He returned to what he had been doing in the first place, which was to look at the other prisoners in the cage. He noticed two things, one being that none of them had collars on and the second being that they all didn't seem to care the slightest about him, not even glancing at him.

"Weird thing is, the man this kid says is his father died some time ago. I even told him when he was having one of his...fits, or whatever you want to call it. Didn't stop him in the slightest, hell, one might say it even agitated him even more."

Gajeel looked back at the kid with sympathy, but he was still far-gone. He heard a click and looked back towards Magnis, who had just opened up the pit over which he had tied the rope. He threw an astounding length of the rope down the hole and started a quick descent down into the pit. He returned after a minute, and after having come back to the surface, he began pulling the rope up. The end of the rope, which emerged from the depths of the pit, had been tied to a bucket, which Magnis promptly untied. He grimaced slightly. Gajeel lost interest again.

The door unlocked and opened. "Get up," Magnis ordered Gajeel. He stood up, only to have his arm grabbed and he was dragged to the pit. "This'll be your home for the next couple of days." Gajeel looked down and realized he was unable to see the bottom of the pit. Not necessarily because it was very deep, but because it was void of any and all light. "This bucket'll be your best friend," Magnis said, handing him a bucket, which smelled utterly foul.

Gajeel looked at the bucket, and then back up at Magnis, his facial expression begging the question, 'why'.

Magnis smirked in response. "You'll see soon enough what you're going to use it for."

Gajeel shook his head and kept looking at him.

"What?"

He opened his mouth with great caution, and felt the collar tighten ever so slightly. He decided to ignore whatever survival instinct was telling him to keep his mouth shut, and asked the question that had festered in his mind for quite a while. "Why are you doing this?" he managed to say, as fast as he could. Immediately afterwards, he felt the collar tighten immensely and he found himself gasping for air on the ground again.

"That," Magnis said, motioning towards the pit, "is for the unruly who think they have power, or at least that's what that bloody mage told me to say in case anyone was stupid enough to ask…I reckon it's just a powertrip, but hell, what do I know? For everything else, well…he told me that if you're not strong enough to own yourself, then we are. That sounds like bullshit to me too, so I guess it's just because he's greedy. As for myself..." he stopped. "I like to think I don't really have a choice, but that's not true…maybe it's because I'm worried someone worse might replace me…although that's not it either…I don't really know. No one ever asked me why I'm doing this, and I guess what you meant to ask is 'why are you doing this to me'…" he sighed.

"Just get down there," he said, handing him the part of rope. "Hold on," he muttered, after which he gave him a push, sending him out over the pit with the rope in one hand and the bucket in his other.

Being unable to hold on properly, Gajeel slowly slid down the rope. He clenched his teeth in pain as he felt the rough rope burn into his hand. The descent was brief, but somewhat terrifying as the light began to diminish as he slid down into the depths of the pit. When he finally reached the bottom, he released the rope with a sigh of relief and put down the bucket. It was dark, frighteningly so. He couldn't see the ground he was standing on, nor the rope that was slowly sliding up as it was being pulled by Magnis. He looked up and was briefly blinded by the light, but as his eyes readjusted, he could see the rope disappearing and then subsequently the hatch fell in place and blocked out the light, submerging Gajeel in absolute darkness.

For reasons he could not understand, there was only one thought circulating inside of his mind as he sat in the perpetual blackness.

'Papa will come for me'.

* * *

><p>And another chapter draws to an end. As always, I hope you enjoyed this slightly different chapter and feel free to leave a review to share your thoughts.<p> 


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